The !0000 tip began as a misguided attempt to be helpful. The hoax instructs users to add the bogus !0000 name to their email address book in an effort to thwart email worms. The author assumed that the worm would try to send itself to all addresses listed in the address book and an error would be generated because of the !0000 address.
This appears to be not so much a hoax as a misguided attempt to be helpful. The email being distributed lists a combination of actual virus names and actual hoax names.
Two variants of this hoax exist. One masquerades as a warning about an alleged dangerous new virus. The second claims to be a photograph taken just moments before planes struck the World Trade Center on 9/11.
A classic example of a virus hoax, the 'A Virtual Card for You' hoax warns of a virus that is allegedly the most destructive ever! According to the email, the virus destroys the non-existent 'Sector Zero' and thus permanently destroying the hard drive.
Recycled email prank warning of the dangers of the Two-Striped Telamonia, purportedly a poisonous spider that hides under toilet seats and has killed five people in North Florida