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Five Signs That a Message is a Hoax
The next time that you
receive an alarming e-mail calling you to action, look for any of these five
telltale characteristics before even thinking about sending it along to anybody
else.
URGENT
The e-mail will have a great sense of urgency! You'll usually see a lot of
exclamation points and capitalization. The subject line will typically be
something like:
URGENT!!!!!!
WARNING!!!!!!
IMPORTANT!!!!!!
VIRUS ALERT!!!!!!
TELL ALL YOUR FRIENDS
There will always be a request that you share this "important" warning
by forwarding the message to everybody in your e-mail address book or to as many
people as you possibly can. This is a surefire sign that the message is a hoax.
THIS ISN'T A HOAX
The body of the e-mail will contain some form of corroboration, such as a pseudo-quote
from an executive of a major corporation or from a government agency
official.
Sometimes
the message will include a sincere-sounding premise. For example:
My neighbor, who works for Microsoft, just received this warning so I know it's true. He asked me to pass this along to as many people as I can.
It's
all a bunch of baloney. Don't believe it for a second.
Watch
for e-mails containing a subtle form of self-corroboration. Statements such as
"This is serious!" or "This is not a hoax!" can be
deceiving. Just because somebody says it's not a hoax doesn't make it so.
DIRE CONSEQUENCES
The e-mail text will predict dire consequence if you don't act immediately. The
message may inform you that the virus will destroy your hard drive, kill your
houseplants, or cause green fuzzy things to grow in your refrigerator.
HISTORY
Look for a lot of >>>>
marks in the left margin. These marks indicate that people suckered by the hoax
have forwarded the message countless times before it has reached you.
Now
It's Time to Play:
Spot
the Hoax
The
following is an actual hoax e-mail. Thousands of people have forwarded the
"Budweiser Frog" virus hoax to millions of Internet users, keeping it
alive and in circulation for years. See how many of the five hoax signs you can
spot!
>>>
>>>Subject: READ IMMEDIATELY AND PASS ON!
>>>
>>>Someone is sending out a very cute screensaver of the Budweiser
>>>Frogs. If you download it, you will lose everything! Your hard drive
>>>will crash and someone from the Internet will get your screen name
>>>and password!
>>>
>>>DO NOT DOWNLOAD IT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES!
>>>
>>>It just went into circulation yesterday. Please distribute this
>>>message. This is a new, very malicious virus and not many people
>>>know about it.
>>>
>>>This information was announced yesterday morning from Microsoft.
>>>Please share it with everyone that might access the Internet.
>>>
>>>Once again, pass this along to EVERYONE in your address book
>>>so that this may be stopped. AOL has said that this is a very
>>>dangerous virus and that there is NO remedy for it at this time.
>>>
