Hoaxes

Generally, a hoax is a false warning in which the author uses social engineering in order to determine the computer user to perform a certain action. The typical virus hoax claims a new virus has been detected and instructs forwarding the warning to all your friends.

These messages waste people's time, clog up mail servers and consume network bandwidth. The damages incurred are usually caused by the user himself, when the hoax instructions are blindly followed.

A common hoax will include one or more of these features:

• The message refers to well known entities like organizations, companies, etc. to give credibility to the warning.
• It urges you to spread the warning to as many users as possible, usually close friends.
• The message includes an incentive for forwarding it to a minimal number of people.

   

• The technical details are either inconsistent or incomprehensible.
• The text includes words in capitals or multiple exclamation marks.
• The message was forwarded several times and includes multiple > characters in front of each line.

We recommend deleting any hoax without forwarding or replying to it.