Don't forward that hoax
It's all too easy to start email hoaxes.
Some seem very plausible because they're
cleverly written. Most are too excited in
tone to be seriously believed. Virus warnings
are the most prevalent. They drop names like
IBM, the FBI or Dell to make them seem valid.
Unless you are subscribed to a newsletter that issues virus warnings,
you'll probably never get a genuine
virus
warning from anyone.
The myth about US Postal Service adding a
5 cent surcharge to email messages, and urging
people to pass it on is still circulating.
USPS has no taxing authority -- it has not
even been a government agency for many years.
The FCC regulates email, but that doesn't
stop people from passing on the hoax about
USPS.
Hoaxes waste the time and effort of all the
people they're forwarded to, and they waste
Internet resources. Some are designed to
get you to delete legitimate files on your
own computer. You can spot most hoaxes and myths by their urgent title,
poor grammar, misspelling or wild claims
-- they're simply juvenile. Most are forwarded
from someone you know. Don't let that fool
you though. If you're in doubt, but think
you really ought to forward one to your friends,
please check it out first. [Hoax Database] [Symantec] [ Vmyths.com] [more resources below]
Be careful though
A new trick is to disguise a virus/worm as
a well know and previously debunked hoax.
The hoax is restarted with the same name,
but it now has malicious content -- usually
in the form of an attachment. By now many
people have let their guard down. They open
the attachment, and bang, they are victims.
Another trick is to propagate
a worm with
a message that claims to be protection
against
a known virus/worm. The attachment
is actually
the same virus/ worm or another.
Yet another dirty trick is a message that
urges you to delete a "infected"
file from your computer, and to forward the
message to everyone you know. The file is
actually a needed system file. Two examples
are the "sulfnbak.exe" file and "jdbgmgr.exe" files. Both of these have been the
subject specious virus warnings. If you've
already deleted the file, here are instructions
on how to restore it:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q322993
More resources
- Hoaxes
- Hoax Encyclopedia
- Urban Legends
- McAfee Hoax Center
- Scambusters
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