What are... Hoaxes ?
Friday, 10. November 2006, 22:13:02
What are... Hoaxes ?
Hoaxes are usually silly pranks, and are a form of chain mail, and are often also Urban Legends.
Computer Virus hoaxes try to generate fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) in the recipients, bringing them to believe that there is an 'undetectable virus' on their system (how can it be undetectable if you can detect it?).
Some have actually been malicious in content, causing the recipient to delete files from their systems. They should simply be deleted. There is no good luck from sending them to 20 of your friends, nor are they a way in which you will learn anything about the security of your computer.
Snopes is an excellent resource on hoaxes, urban legends and scams http://www.snopes.com The Electronic Ephemera site contains information about many of the common hoaxes, and a lot of information about scams such as the advanced fraud fee scams http://www.virushoax.co.uk, US Dept. of Energy, Computer Incident Advisory Capability, see: http://www.ciac.org/ciac/index.html, Hoax Busters, http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/HBHoaxCategories.html.
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