Stop the hoaxes!
November 23, 1999
© 1999, Douglas E. Welch
While electronic mail has made it easier for people to communicate
it has also made it easier for rumors, con games and hoaxes to
travel around in the world in the electronic equivalent of a "blink
of an eye." As the holiday season approaches, the number of hoaxes we see
in our Inbox increases dramatically. Rather than forwarding these
messages to everyone you know, take a few minutes to separate
the electronic "wheat from the chaff."
Everyone needs your help
Internet hoaxes can take almost any form. Perhaps you have heard
of the dying boy who wants to collect business cards from around
the globe. Then there is the email claiming that the American
Cancer Society will donate 2 cents for every forwarded copy of
an email message. Maybe you got the message about the virus that
could wipe out your hard disk just by reading your email. All
are hoaxes. Worse yet, even though many of these hoaxes are many
years old, I still receive them on a regular basis.
Putting a stop to it all
The only way to stop the endless round of hoaxes is to inform
ourselves. Several web sites are now available that can help to
dispel the myths surrounding hoax messages and prevent you from
becoming yet another carrier of this electronic disease. Before
you forward any message purporting to be a virus alert or fundraising
request, check it out with one of these sites. You might be surprised
at what you find.
The Computer Virus Myth site is an excellent, if somewhat irreverent, source for current
information about virus hoaxes and other Internet myths. Information
is updated on a nearly daily basis and an archive allows you to
research older hoaxes that might be making the rounds again. In
one case I was forwarded an email that I suspected was a hoax.
I had not seen this specific message before so I visited this
site to check on its validity. To my surprise I found the message,
using the exact same wording, on this site. I was then able to
gently inform the sender of the hoax and hopefully stopped hundreds
of new emails from being sent.
The CIAC (Computer Incident Advisory Capability) is a group within the
U.S. Department of Energy that is charged with protecting their
computer resources. Due to its role it has also become one for
the major information centers about viruses, hacker/cracker attacks,
computer vulnerabilities and hoaxes. CIAC attempts to distribute
as much information as possible about these threats within its
rather limited official roll. The best information on this site
is their guide to identifying new hoax warnings, identifying a
valid warning and what to do if you think a message is a hoax.
There is some truth to it all
Recently, several legitimate fundraising sites have appeared on
the World Wide Web. The Hunger Site is just one. In this model, corporate sponsors donate money or
supplies for each person who views the information on the web
site. It is important to be informed about sites like this, as
they can suffer from being wrongly lumped in typical email hoaxes.
The next time you receive an email asking for donations or warning
you about a virus, check it out before you forward it to hundreds
of people. If each of us do our part to debunk these hoax messages
everyone will benefit. We all end up dealing with less junk email
and legitimate causes gain the support that they need.
Douglas E. Welch is a freelance writer and computer consultant
in Van Nuys, California. He also writes Career Opportunities, a weekly column on high-tech careers and A Gardener's Notebook. You can find more of Douglas' writing on his web page at: http://www.welchwrite.com/
He can reached via email at douglas@welchwrite.com
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