How can a virus be a hoax?

Answer 1

There could be two kinds of hoaxes arriving by email involving or pretending to be about viruses (or virii):

1. You receive an email which looks legitimate; it might have a subject line such as 'Re your order', or 'greetings from ...' or 'your account details ...' and so on. This kind of email could simply be a vehicle for a virus.

It's easy to protect yourself against these: don't open anything you don't know to be legitimate. If something arrives saying 'Hi from Pam' and you don't know anyone called Pam who's likely to be emailing you, just delete it.

Assume that anyone who knows you well enough to email greetings will also have your phone number, and can ring you if they really want to.

Or, it mightn't be a virus, but it could be a phishing attempt: it could ask you to update your bank details, for example, by clicking on a link that looks okay. Don't click. Your bank, or credit card provider, or any government department, will never, ever email you asking you to do this. If in doubt, look up your bank's, or other organization's, toll-free number and ring them to check. Or email them on the address you already have for them and ask them about the mail you've received.

2. You receive an email which has a subject line such as 'Virus Alert!!! This is not a hoax!!!!' or something similar, usually but not always with bright colors and lots of exclamation marks. Frequently it will tell you this virus alert was on the news last night, or has been checked out by some well-known antivirus company, or is being issued by IBM or similar. It'll tell you to send it to all your friends to warn them of the dangerous virus.

This is a virus hoax email. There is no virus. Some idiot with no life thinks its funny to clog up people's inboxes with this stuff; it's the same as all the other emails that tell you to forward them on.

Don't forward anything just because an email tells you to do so. Especially warnings with lots of exclamation marks. Even if the email says it's collecting signatures to make some dying kid's last days happier, or to petition the government to do something really, truly worthwhile, or it's some story that sounds good. Practically all these things are fakes; it takes less than a minute to check on them (copy some of the wording and do a search on it, with the word 'hoax', and you'll find heaps of hits, some repeating the email and others explaining it's all a hoax.

Forwarding fake stuff only makes you look stupid.

If you get an email with great photos or jokes or something else you really want to share, fine. Forward it. If it has stuff at the bottom telling people to send it on, delete that part. If it's worth forwarding, people will forward it. There's no excuse for telling people they'll have good luck, or bad luck, or they have no moral courage, or they'll be helping someone, just because they forward an email. Even if you didn't actually write that stuff, you might as well have done because it's coming from you when you send it on.

*DON'T open emails that look legitimate but that you don't know anything about.

*DON'T click on links in emails unless they're from someone you know personally and trust.

*DON'T forward emails just because they say you must, or should.

*DO check on emails you want to forward: it sounds a good story, but is it true? Check first. And always delete any 'please forward' instructions.