What exactly is a virus hoax?
A virus hoax is a simple helpful-looking message warning you of a non-existent computer virus. In most cases, the sender of such a message is your friend or colleague who, most likely, had received a similar message. They would have believed it and would have forwarded the warning to you to help you out. Virus hoaxes are very much like chain letters, as they spread far and fast, as people good willingly forward these messages to others. The main objective of the perpetrator here is to convince the receiver of the hoax to forward the message to their friends. This is how a virus hoax spreads. Therefore, successful virus hoaxes have basically two common things: Language used Often virus hoaxes have technical-sounding language. They use technical jargons to make the message sound authentic and computer novices feel that the danger is real. Source of the message The original message often appears to come from a credible source, for example, from someone with a big title and working in a la
