Sadly enough, this just about sums up a Virus Hoax.

Virus Hoaxes are the worst. Basically, you get an email from a friend telling you that IBM or AOL just announced a new virus. 

You should forward this email on to everybody you know, then search for a certain file in a certain place.   If you find it, that means

you're infected.  You should delete the file and reboot your computer.

 

After rebooting your PC, it starts acting really goofy or the machine simply no longer works.  That's because you just deleted

a critical system file.

In essence, you just damaged your own PC!

It seems hoaxes spread faster than viruses. They don't use a replication engine to spread instead, they use human nature. They

play on peoples' fear.

 

These hoaxes, warn readers of impending doom and insist that the warning be forwarded to everyone else in the known

universe. It's like someone shouting "fire" on a busy, crowded Net and the e-mail equivalent of a stampede begins.

 

As these warnings spread, two things happen. Some well-intentioned individuals add their own warnings and suggested

actions while at the same time, other not-so-well-intentioned individuals add to the horrors the supposed virus could wreak.

When this happen, the warnings mutate or evolve.

 

This fact that the warnings change is important to understand. Any single hoax may exist in many forms.

 

For example, late in 1996 a popular warning message about the "Penal Virus." only took about half a second to realize

that the warning was identical to the "Penpal virus." launched just a few months earlier. Although just that one "p" in

"Penpal" was dropped, the "Penal Virus" warning is now spreading on its own.

 

Moreover, current hoaxes are just revisions of other hoaxes. The Penpal hoax itself follows the pattern set by the Good

Times warning.

 

IBM, AOL and the FCC do not announce Virus's via email.  Instead, they post warnings about potential threats on

their web page (much as we do).  The best way to verify a threat is to "google" it.

 

Here's a copy of the "Good Times" Hoax.

V I R U S - W A R N I N G 

The FCC released a warning last Wednesday concerning a matter of major 
importance to any regular user of the Internet. 

There is a computer virus that is being sent across the 
Internet. If you receive an email message with the 
subject line "Good Times," DO NOT read the message, 
DELETE it immediately.

Please read the messages below. Some miscreant is  
sending email under the title "Good Times" nationwide, 
if you get anything like this, DON'T DOWN LOAD THE FILE!

It has a virus that rewrites your hard drive, obliterating 
anything on it. 

Please be careful and forward this mail to anyone you care about.

WARNING!!!!!!! INTERNET VIRUS

If people engage the thought process before clicking the forward button, hoaxes will die a quick death and stop

clogging everybody's email boxes.

The Team

Next, What's Spyware?