An e-mail asking for help is leaving some students searching for help.

Called the SirCam virus, the new computer worm comes as an attachment to an e-mail that reads, or closely resembles, "Hi! How are you? I send you this file in order to have your advice. See you later. Thanks."

If the recipient downloads the attached file, the virus is activated.

According to the Web site McAfee.com, the virus attaches itself to files on the host computer and sends copies of itself to e-mail addresses listed in the address book and temporary Internet files of the infected computer.

Matthew Scott, assistant manager of the Microcomputer Order Center, said the first SirCam virus caused more of a privacy issue than anything else.

"The biggest damage the initial SirCam virus caused was that it would search the hard drive for files and send them out to random individuals," Scott said, adding subsequent versions of the virus may be more dangerous.

Bryon Mushrush, student manager of ResCom, said between five to 10 students a day have come in with computer virus problems at the Pollock Commons location alone.

"The best thing and easiest thing for students to do is install anti-virus software on their computer," he said.

Scott said the MOC does not recommend one anti-virus program over another, but said Norton AntiVirus has been selling well recently.

"If you think you're infected, the best thing to do is to get it cleaned as soon as possible," Mushrush said.

On-campus students can contact ResCom for assistance.

Ericka Samuels (junior-biotechnology) thought she was reading a perfectly innocent e-mail, but she was mistaken.

"One of my friends is an engineering student. She sent e-mails before (to me) to read things she wrote," Samuels said.

She downloaded the attached file, but besides her computer being slowed, she is still unsure of the extent of the damage caused by the virus.

"I don't know if it was eating my files," she said.

She said she downloaded a tool that wiped the virus off her hard drive.

Even though her computer is no longer sending the virus, she has been getting it from other people.

Mushrush advised students to be wary of downloading an unexpected file, but that advice may not always be foolproof.

"Everyone always says to know the people who are sending you files. But it's your friends who are sending you files," Samuels said.

"Beware of anything that sounds fishy."