Email Hoaxes
A popular pastime for some people appears to be creating hoax emails. These emails may amuse someone to generate them but they are in fact a type of email worm as they are typically worded such that the recipient is urged to send it on to as many people as possible.
My niece forwarded one on to me. I've deleted most of the headers but here's the main content:
Date: Sun, 06 Nov 2005 18:36:06 +0000
Hey it is Andy the director of MSN, Tim Buiski, sorry for the interruption
but MSN is closing the system down because too many inconsiderate people are taking up all the names, we only have 578 names left, if you would like to close your account, then do not send this message out, if you would like to keep your account, then send this message to everyone on your contact list.
This is no joke, we are really shutting down the servers.
Send it, thanks,
Tim Buiski,
WHO EVER DOES NOT SEND THIS MESSAGE, YOUR ACCOUNT WILL BE CLOSED AND WILL COST $10.00 A MONTH TO USE, SEND THIS TO EVERYONE ON YOUR LIST
_________________________________________________________________
MSN Messenger 7.5 is now out. Download it for FREE here.
http://messenger.msn.co.uk
Note the characteristics of the hoax email. The main trait is the need to send this on or else there will be dire consequences, e.g. your MSN account will be shut down or you'll have to pay $10.
Typical characteristics of hoax emails are that the use of all capitals, an appeal to some authoritative sounding figure or organisation and no actual way to verify this for yourself.
If you receive an email like this contact the person who sent it to you to tell them it's a hoax and don't send it any more and then delete it.
Here's another hoax which someone sent to our Dad:
Subject: for information VIRUS WARNING
PLEASE FORWARD THIS WARNING AMONG FRIENDS, FAMILY AND CONTACTS:
You should be alert during the next days:
Do not open any message with an attached filed called "Invitation"
regardless of who sent it.
It is a virus that opens an Olympic Torch which "burns" the whole hard
disc C of your computer. This virus will be received from someone who
has your e-mail address in his/her contact list, that is why you
should send this e-mail to all your contacts. It is better to receive
this message 25 times than to receive the virus and open it. If you
receive a mail called "invitation", though sent by a friend, do not
open it and shut down your computer immediately.
This is the worst virus announced by CNN, it has been classified by
Microsoft as the most destructive virus ever.
This virus was discovered by McAfee yesterday, and there is no repair
yet for this kind of virus. This virus simply destroys the Zero Sector
of the Hard Disc, where the vital information is kept.
SEND THIS E-MAIL TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW, COPY THIS E-MAIL AND SEND IT TO
YOUR FRIENDS AND REMEMBER: IF YOU SEND IT TO THEM, YOU WILL BENEFIT
ALL OF US.
Again note the traits - the requirement to send to 25 people, the threat of dire consequences to some action you do or don't take. Just delete them.
Click a link below to go to the next subject:
Can't find what your looking for? Try Google Search: |