EMAIL FACTS
Internet / email Hoaxes and Scams
From time to time you are bound to run into some of the hoaxes,
jokers, chain letters and scams that exist on the Internet.
This page is to help you avoid being fooled.
Introduction
Be aware that CyberSpace and the InterNet, just like the *real* world, is full of
jokers, hoaxes, frauds, scams, Con artists and bogus information.
Unfortunately, some of the most *despicable* con artists imaginable GoTo Third World Countries,
so they are out of reach of United States Laws.
You are responsible for what you do.
Circulating misinformation, chain letters, and pyramid schemes are
*not* acceptable uses.
Remember, if it “sounds too good to be true,” it probably
*isn’t* true!!
If you get email from someone and it says:
“Please email this to everyone you know,”
PLEASE DON’T !
Examples:
Craig Shergold is dying of cancer and wants cards
Actually, Craig Shergold *was* seriously ill around 1989 and his dying wish
was to receive a huge number of get well cards and get his name into the Guinness
Book of World Records. This is a bad case of “dated information”.
Fortunately, his brain tumor was successfully treated, and he is alive and well.
He *is*
in the Guinness Book of World Records, which you can consult for more information.
Furthermore, the “nine year old kid”
graduated from college several years ago.
His family is begging for the cards to stop. I personally have seen him on
TV three different times, saying:
“Please *Don’t send* any more cards.”
He *still* gets about sixteen thousand cards per week.
[ Be careful what you wish for!! ] What’s worse, people are now circulating
his message with false addresses, trying to deluge unsuspecting victims with mail.
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There is No Way to track forwarded email
“There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.”
– Heinlein
Somebody says they will give you something for forwarding email.
Forwarded email *cannot* be tracked.
Neither AOL nor any other large company will donate money for an expensive
operation. Even the insurers that are *supposed* to pay for these operations will do
everything to get out of paying, to make more money for their rich owners.
The
urban legends site
has a whole section devoted to this type of scam. These email forwarding hoaxes are a way of tweaking
the Internet newbie.
Consider them the Internet equivalent of the
‘Kick me’ sign.
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Big companies don’t do business via chain letter
Bill Gates is not giving you or anyone else any of his money,
nor is Disney or anyone else giving you a free vacation.
There is no baby food company issuing class-action checks. You can relax;
there is no need to pass it on “just in case it’s true.”
Furthermore, just because someone said in the message, eight generations
back, that “we checked it out and
it’s legit,”
does not actually make it true!
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A Petition Claiming you can sign it
by adding your name & Forwarding It. No Government or
Politician has ever taken seriously a petition
that was not signed in ink.
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The FCC is about to ban all religious broadcasting
False. Apparently started by a disgruntled
license applicant around 1975. Still circulating with forged docket numbers.
The FCC is going to tax email
This
Hoax
is *so* old! It’s from the pre-internet days of BBSs,
& 1200 baud modems, when we were all convinced the government was going to
tax modem phone calls made in our local exchange. This ancient hoax has
morphed to a tax by the U.S. Postal
Service on email. This hoax keeps going around so much that the
FCC
& US Postal Svc both
have a disclaimers on their websites.
There is *no* bill 602p ! House bills are numbered with HB# ;
Senate bills are numbered S#
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This pyramid scheme is legal under Postal Laws
False.
Everybody who runs a pyramid / ponzi scheme wants
you to think it’s legal.
That doesn’t make it so.
Even if they can make up *nonexistent* laws,
All Pyramid Schemes are Illegal!!
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The “Bad Times” virus
If you get a message that says: Do not read any mail with the subject
of “BAD TIMES” because it will erase your hard drive. You can
safely ignore it. Actually, the message itself is a funny
spoof, if you take the time to read it. There is no way for an email message to do this.
More info about the Bad Times hoax is available from
Bad Times Hoax page
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Deadly Spiders nest under toilet seats
and have killed three people. Hoax.
There is *no* spider genus “arachnius,”
nor is there a spider named “arachnius gluteus.”
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There is no kidney theft ring in New Orleans
or anywhere else. Hoax.
No one is waking up in a bathtub full of ice, even if a friend
of a friend swears it happened to their cousin. The experienced and qualified doctors that
actually perform such operations *must* do long & extensive tests to make
sure the new kidney is compatible with their patient. No–One that is a
first year medical student can do this. If you are
insistent on believing the kidney theft-ring stories, please
see: Urban Legends
And I quote: “The National Kidney Foundation has repeatedly
issued requests for actual victims of organ thieves to come
forward & tell their stories. None have.”
That’s “None,” as in “ZERO.”
Not even your friend’s cousin.
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“The Internet is shutting down for cleaning”
Hoax.
An “April Fool”
message that claimed “The Internet is shutting down to
be cleaned” recently made the rounds. The Internet *never* shuts down,
and even if it did it would not be announced by people forwarding email to
everybody they know.
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Neiman Marcus doesn’t sell a $250 cookie recipe.
Urban Legend.
Even if they do, we all have it. If you don’t,
you can get a copy at:
Cookie Recipe
Then, if you make the recipe, decide the cookies are that awesome, feel free to pass the
recipe on. Note: This recipe & story has been going around via snail
mail for at least fifteen years before there *was* an internet.
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Even if the latest NASA rocket disaster DID contain radioactive plutonium
that went to particulate over the eastern seaboard, do you
REALLY think this information would reach the public
via an internet chain-letter?
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We know all 500 ways to drive your roommates crazy
irritate co-workers, gross-out bathroom stall neighbors, and creep out people
on an elevator. We also know exactly how many engineers, college students,
Usenet posters, and people from each and every ethnicity in the world it
takes to change a light bulb.
How many hoax mongers does it take to change a light bulb?
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If you still absolutely *MUST* forward
that 14th-generation message from a friend, at least
have the decency to trim the eight miles of headers showing everyone
else who’s received it over the last 6 months. It sure
wouldn’t hurt to get rid of all the “>”
that begin each
line. Besides, if it has gone around
* that * many * times,
we’ve probably already seen it.
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Genuine Viruses
Beware of unexpected attachments to emails, even
if they are from your friends, especially
those with .exe .scr .vbs
extensions. These are executable files, and can do
whatever the programmer who wrote them wants, even erasing your hard drive!!
Some viruses, like the notorious “Melissa” virus, have a
built-in email program that will use your Outlook address book and forward
itself to everyone in your book, without the hapless victim even being
aware that they are spreading the virus. By using it’s own email, the virus
will *not* place a copy in your “sent” folder.
Also, watch for foolers like SHEEP.TXT.exe
If you don’t look closely you won’t see that it is really an .exe
[ EXEcutable ] file, *not* a .txt [ TeXT ] file &
may have a wolf hiding
inside!! The latest is AnnaKournikova.jpg.vbs
which looks like a harmless .jpg [ picture ] file but is really a .vbs
[ Visual Basic Script ] which has a worm virus. Such a
multiple-extension is a dead giveaway that the attached file is malicious!!
You should never, never, never forward any email containing any virus
warning unless you first confirm it at an actual site of
an actual company that actually deals with viruses.
GoTo: Virus Hoaxes
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Example of a *Genuine* virus alert:
VIRUS ALERT
If you receive an email with this subject line:
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs - The REAL story!
with an attachment . . .
DO NOT OPEN THE ATTACHMENT! It is a virus!
The virus is called w32_hybris and it uses Outlook or Outlook Express
mail programs to send a copies of itself around the internet from the email
address of hahaha@sexyfun.net and contains an attachment about
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs under various names!
Here’s the straight dope on it . . .
www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.hybris.gen.html
note: A simple, short description of the virus, a
*lack* of “send this to everyone you know,” and a link to a *reputable * authority* where
you can check, verify the facts & get more info.
Sex Sells, even viruses!
With literally *hundreds* of new viruses coming out each month, even the best anti-virus
software is useless if your files are not kept
up-to-date with the latest virus definitions.
For example, Norton’s anti-virus now has definitions for
over *fifty thousand* viruses!
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For More info GoTo:
Anna Kornikova fotos
Basic Netiquette
Chain Letters
Hoax Busters
Hoax Kill
InterNet Hoaxes
Schemes, Scams, Frauds
Urban Legends
Virus Hoaxes
Virus Myths
Mike the Tech
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