Does the destructive virus “Hannes Bochtler” really exist and does it come via contact request?

We received the following request from an unsettled user:

I just received the following and I think it's a hoax. Can you verify that?

“Please tell all the people on your list not to accept contact with 'Hannes Bochtler'! This is a virus (via WhatsApp etc.) that destroys the entire hard drive and downloads the data. If one of your contacts catches it, you are also affected because it eats its way through the list! So copy and send!!! If the number 017630664014 calls you, don't answer it! Is a hacker and all your contacts will be affected too! It was also confirmed by Antenne Bayern and RTL this morning! Forward!"

Hmm, texts like this sound pretty familiar to us... that's true, because the list of alleged hacker messages is almost endless. From the classic Ute Christoff to the newcomers Ute Lehr or Christoph and Jessica Davis ... they all have one thing in common:

There is a chain letter in circulation that mutates every now and then and is sometimes given new names.

So there are no hackers or a virus eating through your contact list and supposedly destroying your hard drive.

However, there are real people with exactly these names whose lives are made difficult by such chain letters.

Fact check

And this chain letter has been around for a very long time. In fact, since 2011 .

It all started with a so-called Moritz Häupl and a Christian Wick . In 2012, Christian Wick suddenly became Marcel Hohmann and then in 2014 Domenik Beuting and Andreas Opitz . It continued in 2015 with Ute Christoff . Ute Christoff then became Ute Lehr and now we have reached a certain Hannes Bochtler .

Actual incident:

Well, that's how the chain letter got its new name:

Some colleagues from the football club SV Egg an der Günz in the Allgäu wanted to make a joke. They the name and cell phone number of their defender, Hannes , and distributed the chain letter within the team.

However, at least one of the players was either too careless or too gullible: he continued to distribute the chain letter, so that thousands of copies of it are now floating around WhatsApp.

Hannes is thrilled about everything else, as Antenne Bayern and allgaeu.life report:

After countless threats and insults, he finally had to get a new cell phone number and hopes that peace will now return.

Technically not possible at all!

It is not uncommon for real people to be harmed by these chain letters. Such hacker attacks are also not possible...

  1. Whatever person is named, it is not a virus. Unless she has one.
  2. He also can't destroy a hard drive or download any data, because something like that only happens if you catch a Trojan.
  3. Even if a friend had “ Hannes B. ” as a “friend”, he would still not have access to your data.
  4. “Because he eats his way through the list….” We hope that Hannes B. doesn't choke and has a full stomach.

There is absolutely no truth to the claims; The attack on the hard drive is just as out of thin air as are the alleged confirmations of various media information. This applies to “ Hannes B. ” or any other name that appears in such chain letters!

Result

It's a tall tale. They are chain letters shared by ignorant people. In order to really get to the user's data, you would need access to the computer. Yes, something like that can happen through a “phishing attack” or if you catch a Trojan, but that has nothing to do with the above status posts and is a completely different topic!

On the other hand, jokes that were not meant to be malicious can end badly, as the cases of Hannes B. and Ute C. show.

So stop sharing these chain letters! Firstly, they are not true and secondly, they can cause real harm!


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