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Computer Hoaxes for the Beginner
Can you say, "hoax?"
With the advent of email, one person
can send millions of messages. With the help of willing
accomplice friends, a single hoax chain letter can multiply
into hundreds of millions. There are any number of hoaxes
and well-meaning people can unwittingly propagate them.
Some hoaxes are political disinformation;
some are scams, some are chain letters, and some are just
outdated information making the rounds again. The disinformation
type are intended to hurt some public figure or company,
the scams are intended to separate you from your money,
the chain letters can plug up the Internet (and eventually
can make your Internet access cost more), and the old information
can get you to do the wrong thing.
There are two warning signs. If
it seems to good too be true, it probably is (where have
you heard that before?), and if it says something breathless
like, "Send this to everyone on your list right away," you
probably shouldn't. Often, these hoaxes quote people and
institutions. You can call or email those people and institutions
to check. Often there will be a web page mentioning the
existence of the hoax, as millions of people will have received
it.
I received an email from a relative
last year, decrying Barbara Walter's selection of Jane Fonda
as a "Woman of the Century," and detailing statements and
actions she took at the time of the Viet Nam War. The email
was a hoax that took some facts, some outright lies, and
some outdated information and put them all together. Fonda
did say some of the things in the early 70's that were mentioned
in the email (although she apologized on television in 1988),
didn't do many of the things mentioned, and the Walters
event took place 5 years ago. Someone wanted to damage Fonda,
and found an audience willing to propagate this hoax, over
and over again.
The Nigerian scam has a lot of variations.
The basic story is that a rich person has a fortune they
need to get out of the (name your favorite politically oppressed)
country and they need your help. In exchange, you get some
percentage of these millions. When you reply, you get asked
for your bank account number (for them to deposit the funds)
and possibly a small deposit (to show your trustworthiness).
People have been taken in by this scam for two decades,
and more than a $100 million.
As for the email telling you that
Bill Gates is giving you money for every time you forward
an email — it ain't gonna happen. It's just a chain
letter, and some versions give you a virus for your trouble.
If you aren't sure an email you
get is talking about something real, try going to one of
the websites that are dedicated to exposing these hoaxes.
They don't always completely agree, so you might check a
couple. In any case, they make for entertaining reading:
http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoaxsites.html
http://www.snopes.com/
http://www.hoaxkill.com/index2.shtml
http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org
http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/virushoaxes1/
http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/hoax.html
Finally, some hoax emails exist
just to send around data-damaging Trojans or viruses. They
propagate via the unwitting actions of friendly emails being
sent to others. They can make your data unusable, crash
your computer. We can usually recover your data when the
data damaged by the malignant email is needed. We have saved
the day for thousands of happy
clients. If you have this problem, give us a
call or drop
us an email.
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