Hoax. And an old one. Below is my canned letter I send to people that send
me hoaxes. Feel free to edit it and use it yourself.
**************
The email you have sent is a fake.
As an owner of an ISP, I get all kinds of email like this. There is an easy
way to find out if it is true.
When reading the suspect email, use the following rules, as all 4 will be in
a hoax:
1. Hook (threat, warning, monetary gain).
2. Credibility by association (House Bill #XX, as reported on CNN,
according to Center for Disease Control).
3. Technical jargon or facts (an infinite binary loop that reads and
destroys data in the drive's File Allocation Table).
4. A request to send or forward the information to as many people as
possible.
The first warning sign should have been the urgent "Send this to everyone
you know!" inside the message. Whenever you see this one sentence, take a
step back and look at the larger picture.
Hoaxes will fit into one of the following categories
Malicious Code
Urban Myths
Give Aways
Inconsequential Warnings
Traditional Chain Letters
Scam Chains
Sympathy Letters (be careful here, some are legit but MOST are not. In my
opinion, a valid prayer/sympathy letter should have a web page to get more
information and/or verify the information).
First thing, go to http://www.urbanlegends.com/ (or any one of the links
listed below) and do a simple search. Simply enter the name of the
virus/story and you will most likely see several references to it. Your
favorite anti-virus programs web page will also have a hoax page (you
do have anti-virus software don't you!?).
Save these links for more information:
http://www.urbanlegends.com
http://HoaxBusters.ciac.org/
http://www.DataExpedition.com/~sbnoble/Nettiquette/Hoaxes.html
http://www.snopes.com
http://vil.mcafee.com
http://www.ca.com
http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/index.html
http://kumite.com/myths/myths
http://korova.com/virus/hoax.htm
http://www.stiller.com/hoaxa.htm
I see these all the time and over the last 16 years, I have probably seen
them all (yes, I have been doing email since 1985).
Please search out these stories before you forward them on to your friends.
The 2 minutes you spend doing this simple deed will make everyone have a
much nicer day.
Please feel free to save and modify this email and send this to anyone
sending you a hoax.
Sheldon
Sheldon Koehler, Owner/Partner
Ten Forward Communications
360-457-9023
http://www.tenforward.com
E-Commerce that makes sense!
http://store.tenforward.com
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