As if it wasn’t bad enough that people spread viruses through email, there are also email virus hoaxes! These hoaxes often instruct you to delete files from your hard drive or take other similar steps in order to “protect yourself” from a virus.
In the case of a virus hoax these messages are not true and often trick you into deleting important files from your computer. Then in an attempt to “warn” your friends and colleagues you willingly forward this message to all your friends and colleagues. Although you mean will you are just helping to spread this hoax.
With all the confusion and panic that computer viruses create, how can you separate a genuine virus report that requires action from one of these bogus hoaxes? Luckily there is help on the web thanks to a few pages that provide listings of these virus hoaxes and myths.
Next time you receive a message about a virus simply check one of these sites to see if it’s a real threat before taking any action or spreading the message to others:
- Vmyths.com http://www.vmyths.com/ – This site has an A-Z index of hoaxes which you can search or browse, news of the latest hoaxes, links to helpful sites (including those dealing with “real” viruses), background articles and more. They also offer three quick tips on how to spot an email virus hoax. http://www.vmyths.com/resource.cfm?id=19&page=1
- Symantec’s Virus Hoax Page http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/hoax.html – Symantec, the makers of the popular Norton Antivirus software, also have a page that lists the most common email virus hoaxes
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