How to Spot a Virus Hoax
- They all reference a technology authority. Sometimes it's IBM or Microsoft or the FBI. Sometime the author claims that several sources have verified the threat.
- The author also promises that the catastrophic virus will arrive as email and wipe out a computer's hard drive or do some other awful damage.
- They also encourage the recipient to spread the word about the impending evil that's about to descend by forwarding the message to all their friends. That line is the giveaway to the hoax. It is the reason for the email's existence and the mechanism by which the hoax is spread. Sometime the request to forward the message is urged more than once in the hoax.
- The best way to see if an email warning is a virus hoax is to copy a sentence or two from it and search it on Google.com or your favorite search engine.
CAUTION: Some virus hoaxes tell you to search for and delete specific files on your system that it claims are viruses. Knows what you are deleting. Accidentally deleting a system file can deem the computer unusable.
Source: Windows Lockdown! by Andy Walker