Stop Wasting Time on
Virus Hoaxes and Chain Letters! 

by Steve Maurer

This article explains how to spot an email hoax, and where to find information on the Web about both hoaxes and chain letters.

Regular email is taking up a lot of our time these days without the disruptions and damage caused by all the email hoaxes and chain letters floating around. Here's how to spot an email hoax, and where to find information on the Web about both hoaxes and chain letters.

Email Hoaxes. These insidious letters contain "supposed" information on email viruses, but it's easy to spot an email hoax. Some of the things they have in common are:

1. "This just reported yesterday by (Microsoft, IBM, AOL, other software and Internet companies)". As a rule of thumb, these types of companies just don't send out virus alerts. They leave it up to the virus software people.)

2. "Send this to everyone in your address book!" (This is a dead give-away. Don't send it to anyone!)

3. "For more information contact. . ." (the name of some fictitious person who you can never get hold of).

4. Unbelievable claims made on the damage that will be done on your computer. Sometimes the email asks that you find and remove a suspected virus file that turns out to be an actual computer system file!

5. Usually they are forwarded (about a million times!).

Steps You Should Take

1. Check your virus software vendor's site for information (you do have virus software, don't you?) They usually have a "Hoax Library."

2. Check out some reputable "Hoax alert" sites. I recommend the Urban Legends site at Snopes.com. They have a "search" feature to help you find information.

3. Do some real research before you pass virus alerts on to others and waste their time as well. But what harm can be done by sending these on, you ask? Plenty. If you do send it out to "everyone" in your book, and they send it out to everyone in their book, and they send it out to everyone in their book. . . well, email systems can get clogged, and whole company systems can be shut down from overload!

Chain Letters

Again, the Snopes.com site is an excellent place to check on these. In a nutshell, no one will get the 3 cents per forwarded email, Bill Gates is not giving away free money, and, while the Neiman Marcus cookie recipe sounds delicious, it did not come from a disgruntled little old lady. Missing children requests are hard not to pass on to others, but there is a site where you can check their validity. Go to the missing children site at MissingKids.org and you will find good solid information. The urban legends site will also have some info.

In closing let me give you this little bit of advice from a person who has spent countless hours on the Internet: Check everything before you pass it on. Do some solid research! Don't take the easy way out and just click "forward."

© 2003 by Steve Maurer. Steve Maurer publishes SMP Computer, Software, and Internet Tips, a free email newsletter that you can sign up for at his Steve Maurer Publications site. His free eBook, The Email Primer, from @ to Zip is also available online, along with some excellent software tutorials in "The Classroom." 

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