Virus Hoaxes

Over the last few years, the virus hoax phenomenon has grown dramatically, fueled by the efforts of millions of well-meaning persons new to the internet, who receive some sort of official-looking message warning of a devastating new virus, often carried by an email message. In a desire to be helpful, these messages are passed on far and wide, compunding the problem.

The natural question is, what do you do if you get such a message? What you should not do is re-mail such things to large groups of people. All this does is create a snowball of misinformation.

If you have received a message about a new virus, it is likely that your network or system administrator has as well, so if you forward your warnings on to these folks, the volume of mail they get may not allow for a personalized response. Don't take it personally.

Further information on this hoax phenomenon may be found at CIAC's HoaxBusters page. This is a great place to go if you'd like to verify that the chain letter you've received is a hoax or not.

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