Why debunk a virus hoax?
I frequently receive messages from members of the D-E community that are “warnings” about viruses and other technological related scams. As you may know most of these warnings are hoaxes or scams themselves. These hoaxes become chain-mail that is forwarded around to hundreds of people. Most people who forward them on mean well, but the messages waste time by cluttering up mailboxes and causing concern for no reason. This noticeboard contains copies of e-mail responses for hoaxes that I have received often. Hopefully, you will find this information useful to slow the spread of these false warnings. More information on fake virus warnings, how to spot them, and the like is available at Hoaxbusters Home Page (U. S. Dept. of Energy): http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/ Carnegie Mellon CERT/CC Computer Virus Resources: http://www.cert.org/other_sources/viruses.html Recent Virus Outbreaks from anitvirus.about.com (includes a good search tool): http://antivirus.about.com/compute/antivirus/cs/recento
