Normally, I write about web site design issues or web site marketing, but due to reasons I ill explain in a moment, I'd like to cover something a little different in this article. We've all seen them - they come in many forms. At one point or another, I'm sure we've all fell or them, and even passed them on. What am I talking about? Email hoaxes, of course. In the past couple of days, I've received a particular email message from four unrelated sources. You may have seen it yourself. It's the one that warns you about a virus that may be on your computer and your virus detection software cannot detect it. The one that directs you to look in your C:\windows\command directory for a particular file SULFNBK.EXE) and delete it. Then it instructs you to "warn" all of your friends by forwarding the message to everyone in your address book. Why are we so gullible? Well, I'm not sure about the answer to that, it's probably best left to the cyber- psychologists to ponder. However, I would like to attempt to educate those who are still falling for these, and show them what to look for and how to check these things out
before passing them on. The file above that the message told you to delete is actually a Windows file that is used to restore long file names. This particular hoax would result in minimal damage to your system, but think of the possibilities (rather, probabilities). The next such message might contain instructions that result in formatting your hard drive (wiping out all of the files on your computer). Believe me, there are plenty of people out there that would simply follow the step-by-step instructions without really knowing what they were doing. I can see the instructions now, "Don't worry about the message that says, 'are you sure you want to remove everything on your hard drive?' - that's just part of the virus talking." *CLICK*! Here are some of the better-known hoaxes that are still making their way around the Internet: ~ The "Money from Microsoft" hoax - Microsoft will pay you money
for forwarding this email! "A week ago I got an email from
Microsoft asking me for my address. I gave it to them and
yesterday I got a check in the mail for $800." ~ BUDSAVER.EXE hoax - a popular screensaver is actually a virus! ~ Good Times - one of the original hoaxes. It's been around since
1994, but is still out there! Warns of another non-existent
virus. ~ The Email Tax Legislation hoax - a bill is going to be passed
that will tax every email you send! This has gotten so bad that
many congressmen have actually set up web pages to explain it's
all a hoax. For the most part, these hoaxes are fairly harmless. They are simply annoying. However, this latest one that I received that actually had you deleting files scared me and prompted me to write this article. This "harmless" prank is now capable of causing serious damage that could potentially cost millions of dollars to correct. Ok, so what should you look for? And once you see it, what should you do? Well, the most common aspect of all of these hoaxes is that they all tell you to forward the message to everyone you know. That should be a major red flag. Whenever you see that, you should automatically be suspicious. They also contain a message that if you think rationally for a moment, if the message were true, you would surely have heard about it in the news, but you never have. Once you suspect that a message might be a hoax, check it out to confirm your suspicions (it only takes a minute). I usually go to the Symantec Antivirus Research Center at
http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/index.html. This site has information about all of the viruses running around the net, but also information about the hoaxes. I simply click on the search button and enter in the main keyword for the message (such as SULFNBK.EXE). Immediately, it will take you to the page describing the hoax. I then send a link to that page to the person who sent me the offending email and ask them to inform everyone else they sent the hoax to. To look at a list of current hoaxes out there, use this link: http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/hoax.html By the way, if you got hit by the SULFNBK.EXE hoax and deleted your file, visit this link for information on how to restore it: http://symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/sulfnbk.exe.warning.html I hope this article will encourage everyone to think before hitting that "Forward" button. To do your part in this fight, forward this article to everyone you know!
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The author, Steve Wood, designs & hosts web sites and offers a
web site design course at http://webdesigncourse4u.com. He owns
and operates Wood Interactive, LLC at http://woodinteractive.com.
You can receive Steve's Web Site Design Tips & Tricks by sending
a blank message to: mailto:tips@woodinteractive.com
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