Virus
Hoaxes
Current Virus Hoaxes are listed at the following link:
Hoaxes
An example hoax:
HOW TO PROTECT YOUR
ADDRESS BOOK!
Here is a computer trick that's
really ingenious in its simplicity. As you may know, when/if a worm virus
gets into your computer it heads straight for your email address book, and sends
itself to everyone in there, thus infecting all your friends and associates.
This trick won't keep the virus from getting into your computer, but it will
stop it from using your address book to spread further, and it will alert you to
the fact, that the worm has gotten into your system.
Here's what you do: first, open
your address book and click on "new contact" just as you would
do if you were adding a new friend to your list of email addresses. In the
window where you would type your friend's first name, type in AAAAAAA. In
the window below where it prompts you to enter the new email address, type in WormAlert@somewhere.com . Then complete everything by clicking add, enter,
ok, etc.
Now, here's what
you've done and why it works: The "name" AAAAAAA will be placed at the
top of your address book as entry #1. This will be where the worm will start in
an effort to send itself to all your friends. But when it tries to send itself
to AAAAAAA, it will be undeliverable because of the phony email address you
entered (WormAlert@somewhere.com). If the first attempt fails (which it will
because of the phony address), the worm goes no further and your friends will
not be infected.
Here's the second
great advantage of this method: If an email cannot be delivered, you will be
notified of this in your InBox almost immediately. Hence, if you ever get an
email telling you that an email addressed to WormAlert@somewhere.com could not be delivered, you know right away
that you have the worm virus in your system. You can then take steps to get rid
of it!
Index
Tips by Jerry
Davis (c) 2002
TXOL Internet's
Central and Southwestern Sales Representative