Say "No" to Hoaxes As much good stuff as there is on the Internet, unfortunately there is even more bad stuff such as spam, virii, scams, porn, crackers, etc. Another one of the annoying things found in abundance online are hoaxes. What is a Hoax? A hoax is usually an e-mail you receive with a supposedly very important message, urging you to pass this info on to as many people as possible to make them aware of this info. However, the message is bogus and passing it on will accomplish nothing else but create unnecessary junk e-mail messages, very similar to chain letters. The only purpose of hoaxes is to waste your time and make you help generate junk Internet traffic. Hoaxes are essentially another type of virus. Think about the similarities: a virus is a malicious piece of code camouflaged as a harmless program or file - a hoax is a bogus message camouflaged as a true story, important message, etc. a virus spreads over the Internet via e-mail - so does a hoax a virus interrupts productivity by screwing with your computer - a hoax interrupts productivity by making you waste time reading it and forwarding it, as well as bogging down e-mail servers around the globe How does a hoax work? Here's the big difference between a virus and a hoax. A lot of virii are malicious programs that spread themselves in secret by e-mailing themselves to some or all people in your address book without you even noticing. But a hoax is not a program or script and therefore cannot replicate and spread itself. It has to be a lot trickier. The secret is that a hoax has to be convincing enough to make you believe it's true so that you spread the hoax yourself! This means a hoax not only wastes your time by making you read it, it also tries to manipulate you and make you do something against your will - spread the hoax and waste other people's time as well! How to identify a hoax Any e-mail that asks you to forward it to as many people as possible is a hoax - period. I've yet to see a single e-mail asked to be forwarded that was legit. Any time you see a request to spread an e-mail - don't! Assume it's a hoax, don't bother reading on, just delete it and put an end to it. Every hoax only works if it can convince you that it is legit. They usually do that by claiming that this message comes from some type of authority, some well-known or at least very legitimate sounding organization. Yet the message is being forwarded to you from a friend who got it from a friend who got it from a friend .... you get the picture. If the message was not sent to you directly from said autority, be suspicious, assume it's bogus until you have verified its authenticity by, for example, visiting said authority's web site to see if it's mentioned there. If it's so important, they would post it, don't you think? A hoax spreads by being forwarded. When you forward an e-mail message, most e-mail clients insert the original message with a bracket (>) in front of each line. If you see a message with tons of those brackets, it's usually a chainletter-type hoax. The topic of a hoax usually falls into one of the following categories: - a virus warning - it describes some horrible new virus that spreads like wildfire and does horrible things to computers. You can easily verify them first by visiting the web site of a reputable virus software manufacturer, they maintain searchable databases where you can look up every virus known to mankind. - a scam - it asks you to send something back, whether it's money, your ISP user name and password, credit card number, etc. an urban legend - some incredible tale of something that happened. If it sounds unbelievable, it usually is. - a give-away - it claims that some big well-known company is giving away something for free based on how many times the e-mail is forwarded as it keeps track of how often the e-mail is sent. First of all, there is no such thing as an e-mail tracking system. Secondly, think about it for a moment. Even if the give-away is only worth a dollar and only a few million people get the e-mail, why would anybody give away millions of dollars? Duh! - a tear-jerker - a very common hoax is a story of a person on his/her deathbed with the last wish of receiving tons of e-mail or cards, or somebody donating money for each e-mail sent towards research to cure the (ficticious) disease. - a regular chain letter - the most common one is to send it on, otherwise you'll have bad luck. No matter how superstitious you are, this is complete bull. - a get-rich-quick scheme - somebody has the secret to getting rich quick, and they are sharing it with everybody on the Internet. Think about it: if someone knows how to make a lot of money then why the hell are they telling YOU about it? Out of the goodness of their heart? I don't think so. And besides, if this scheme really works and is readily available online, why aren't there more rich people? What to do with a hoax e-mail If you receive an e-mail that looks like a hoax, the best thing to do is to stop reading and delete the message. Don't waste your time reading the message and don't waste other people's time by forwarding it. If you are skeptical and think it might be legit, take a few minutes and try to verify its authenticity. If the so-called source of the message has a web site, go visit it and see if the information is posted there. Since it was important enough to send around the Internet, it should be prominently featured, shouldn't it? If the source doesn't have a web site, try to identify it and see if it even exists. Chances are you'll find out very quickly that this congressman/hospital/company/whatever doesn't even exist. If the message is a virus warning, visit the web site of one of the reputable virus scanner software manufacturer (links provided below). If the virus actually exists, they will have information about it on their web site. Every virus scanner site maintains a searchable database for easy reference of existing virii. If none of the above methods reveals anything about the message you received, visit one of the hoax info web sites (links provided below). They also maintain a searchable database where you can see if the message is bogus. If that doesn't work either and you still cannot verify its authenticity, delete the message and forget about it. You've already spent enough time on it. Anti-Hoax Links Hoaxbusters http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/ A public service of the CIAC (Computer Incident Advisory Capability) team and the U.S. Department of Energy Don't spread that hoax! http://www.nonprofit.net/hoax/hoax.html Symantec Antivirus Research Center (SARC) - Hoaxes http://www.sarc.com/avcenter/hoax.html Searchable online database of non-existent virii/virus hoaxes Urban Legends http://www.urbanlegends.com/ Archive of urban legends About.com http://urbanlegends.about.com/science/urbanlegends/index.htm?COB=home&PID= 2733 Lots of info about hoaxes and urban legends Snopes http://www.snopes.com/ Urban Legends Reference Pages Searchable Online Databases of Real Virii Symantec Antivirus Research Center (SARC) - Virii http://www.sarc.com/ McAfee Virus Information Library http://vil.nai.com/vil/default.asp Computer Associates Virus Information Center http://www.cai.com/virusinfo/ Trend Micro Virus Information Center http://www.antivirus.com/pc-cillin/vinfo/ http://www.PCNineOneOne.com