Journey of An E-Mail
Hoaxes, Chain Letters and Urban Legends...

Remember that alarming email you received last year warning you not to eat certain fast foods because they were genetically altered? Or the bulletin about a mysterious computer virus that would appear on Friday, the 13th, and attack your hard drive? Or another one about a virus that would place your processor in an "nth-complexity binary loop" and wipe out all your programs? Well, those were hoaxes --alarmist or false email messages circulating widely on the Net. They sometimes recycle hoary old myths or take the form of chain messages, and may be difficult to recognize because they may actually be passed on by friends who want to be helpful and sincerely believe them to be true. Here are examples of hoaxes, chain messages and email myths -- and how to spot them:


Hoaxes:

    A recent cruel Internet hoax goes like this: a traveler visits a hotel bar, meets a stranger and has too many drinks. He wakes next morning in a tub of ice with a note to call 911. When emergency crews arrive they find that one of his kidneys have been "harvested" for transplant sale. The sender of the hoax message usually swears the story is true: his sister-in-law knows the wife of one of the 911 crew. Of course, no such case of supposed "kidney harvest" has ever been found.

    Other Internet hoaxes are old "urban legends" transferred to the Internet -- insects allegedly found in fast food, the mythical baby alligator grown to adulthood in New York sewers. More recently, alarming virus hoaxes have flooded the Net. Among the warnings identified as false are those of the Irina, Good Times, Deeyenda and Ghost viruses. If you receive warnings of any of these viruses, delete the warnings; don't pass them on, advises Computer Incident Advisory Capability (CIAC),which provides information to government websites faced with computer security issues.

    Of course, some virus alerts are legitimate, as are some warnings about Trojans, in which a seemingly innocuous message includes an attachment which, when opened, like the Trojan horse of Greek myth, can destroy a system. Merely reading the accompanying message, of course, cannot harm your system. The best advice is not to open any attachment from an anonymous or unknown source.


Chain Letters:

"Send this on to ten people..." Chain letters are easy to recognize. They usually consist of a hook to get your attention ("Virus Alert!" "Make Money Fast!") a threat of terrible consequences if you break the chain, and a request ("Send this message to as many people as possible.") Sometimes virus warnings are sent as chain letters, often deceptively couched in official or technical language, which you are urged to pass on to others. They often falsely claim to originate with some organization or government agency such as the Federal Communications Commission.

Chain letters are illegal if they ask for money or anything of value. They're damaging on the Net because they clog up valuable space, preventing legitimate messages from getting through. In a chain letter's geometric progression, the ninth message will generate a billion emails.

They also cause companies or organizations to spend time and money denying or trying to stop the letter. The American Cancer Society has been kept busy fighting a widely-circulated phony message saying that ACS will contribute three cents to cancer research for every person who reads and sends on a message supposedly sent by a dying girl. The ACS has never made any such offer.

If you receive what seems to be a chain letter, pass it on to one person; the Web security officer at your company or server.

                    
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