Be aware of email hoaxes!

The hoax is a false email message which warns the recipient of a virus. The message usually serves as a chain e-mail that tells the recipient to send it to everyone you know.

Most hoaxes are easily identified by the fact that they say the virus will make damage in your PC.

Virus hoaxes are usually harmless and just than annoy people. They just know it’s a hoax or waste the time of people who forward the message. However there are so many hoaxes which just call people’s attention to if they delete the program, the computer will have damaged.

Hoaxes are not the same as computer pranks. Computer prank is a program that performs unwanted and annoying actions on a computer, like randomly move the mouse.

The anti-virus specialists advice: we should delete virus hoaxes instead of forwarding them. For example, McAfee says: “We are advising users who receive the email to delete it and DO NOT pass it on as this is how an email HOAX propagates.”

You can read more: wwww.infosecuritylab.com

After viruses, spam, trojans and spyware the next biggest annoyance on the internet (for me at least) is the large number of hoax emails I receive.

Ok, some are funny, others are downright crazy but, ultimately, they’re just spam.

Do you receive hoax emails?

Do you know how to tell that they are a hoax?

An Example Of A ‘Popular’ Hoax

For instance, one of the more common emails going around at the moment centres around a supposedly free Sony Ericsson laptop.

To claim yours all you have to do, according to the email, is to forward the message onto either 8 or 20 other people, depending upon which brand of ‘laptop’ you actually desire.

The latest version of this email even comes with added pictures that show a laptop (see the link above).

Debunking The Hoax

So how then do I know that this particular email is a hoax?

The answer is simple - as with most things in life all that is required is a little time and effort - the sender’s email is quoted as being “anna.swelung@ericsson.com” but poor old Anna doesn’t actually work for them at all!

Not only that but if you surf over the Ericsson website you’ll find that they themselves have debunked this particular email as a hoax too.

In fact, this particular one has been in circulation for several years.

This May Make You Laugh

Also, the T18 and R320 laptops that you can supposedly get your hands on are not all they seem either.

To find out why you’ll have to click the link below…