Currently Speaking ~Webster / MYBC.COM

Hoaxes, viruses and worms... if you thought they were behind us, it may be you were fooled by a summer lull. It's fall, and they're back...

While there was some activity, the summer seemed relatively quiet. But in early October, Bugbear came along (scroll down on our Virus Alerts page for information). It reminded us that viruses and worms are always a threat.

Then there were the hoaxes and chain letters. Chain letters are particularly troubling because you may feel guilty ignoring them. They appear to be good causes, and some actually are good causes. But even if well intentioned, the result tends not to be. For example, Hoaxkill describes a chain letter petition someone began to help others (also known as a sympathy hoax ):

"The problem with this petition is that the person who started the petition was not prepared for the consequences. A few weeks after the petition was started, her e-mail account was flooded with hundreds of thousands of messages. Because of this, her account was closed and all messages were discarded."

Then there are hoaxes... A hoax is not a virus or a worm. On the other hand, it can cause problems similar to worms because it's intended to be sent to lots of people, creating loads of unwanted e-mail. And this can slow the Internet down.

Hoaxes are something like chain letters - in fact, many of them are chain letters. Often they are fake warnings of viruses and worms. People receive them and naturally want to warn others of a potential threat. So the hoax e-mails usually start getting sent all over the Internet. In other words, they act as a worm but without any actual program. (Worms usually end up using your computer to send e-mails to everyone on your contact list.)

Before forwarding e-mails (such as warnings, or other "send to five friends" type e-mails), it's best to ensure the e-mail is legitimate. You'll find warnings about major hoaxes on our Virus Alerts page.

Two good sources for checking up on hoaxes and getting more information are the Hoaxbusters Web site and the McAfee Hoax page.