Computer Safety Tips: Virus Hoaxes

A computer virus hoax is an e-mail message that warns about a virus-but in this case the virus actually does not exist. It's a fake virus. Another type of hoax is a message that tells you to delete certain files from your computer because of a virus, when those files actually pose no threat to your computer.

Certainly the feature shared by all hoaxes is this: they come in an e-mail and are not from a trusted web site or mailing list you have subscribed to. Internet hoaxes are so common that virtually every security company or anti-virus vendor maintains a web page just for this problem.

Here are some other ways you can tell that a virus you've heard about is just a hoax.

Types of hoaxes

Most e-mail hoaxes (and almost all of the really successful ones) come in several categories that are easy to recognize:

• The technical warning: Many successful hoaxes use highly technical language to describe a threat. The description is often complete nonsense.
   
• The Good Samaritan ploy: Hoaxes don't just warn you of a fake threat, they play on your desire to help your friends, or to appear important. They usually also try to talk you into sending the fake warning to everyone you know. This makes the warning seem more real to the people you send it to; because it is from someone they know.
   
• The  too-good-to-be-true offer: One example is those "get rich quick" schemes that clearly sound too good to be true-but people fall for them everyday.

Patterns you can recognize

The e-mail hoax is just the technological equivalent of the chain letter. E-mail hoaxes often follow the usual pattern of all successful cons, and include three parts. If you are suspicious that an e-mail you have received might be a hoax, look for one or all of these in the message:

#1: The Hook

First, the message will play on your greed or kindness, or seem to offer the chance to show off by being the first to warn your friends. Examples that "hook" you include the virus warning, the "dying child" announcement, the offer to make Big Money at Home While Sleeping. If you open the e-mail, it usually says more in the first few paragraphs about what's in the catchy subject line.

#2: The Threat or Warning

The message will quickly move on to warn of severe damage that could happen to your computer (or some other dire consequences) if you don't take a certain action.

#3: The Action

Finally, nearly all of them will include a final plea to send copies of the original message to as many people as you can.

Do not forward e-mail notices of virus threats unless you know they are from a trusted source. Once you know a message is a hoax, delete it right away.