Hoaxes seek to perpetuate themselves by getting the recipient to act in haste. They rely on the fact that most of us are busy and probably won't take the time to research them.
Warnings you receive that contain the words or phrases, urgent, act immediately, send this to everybody in your address book, this has been reported to be the worst virus ever, or any combination of these should immediately raise red flags and cause you to become suspicious. The harder they try to get you to act quickly, the more suspicious you should become.
There are basically two types of hoaxes. The first is pretty much harmless and merely tries to raise your anxiety level.
The second one however, is not harmless. It will attempt to have you damage your own computer, by deleting an essential file. Under no circumstances should you delete any file from your computer, based on an e-mail warning you received. First use the Hoax resources on our viruses page. Than check with a computer expert before ever deleting any file.
The more savvy we become as computer users, the less these hoaxes will pose a threat.
Return To Viruses And Hoax Information PageUpdated on ... September 12, 2007