CompTIA A+® Certification All-In-One For Dummies®, 2nd Edition

3.3. Identifying Hoaxes

It is important to understand that some malicious code that you hear about is a hoax! For example, I remember a few years back, I was playing an elf bowling program that everyone was e-mailing around at Christmas time. After weeks of playing this game, it was said that the program should be removed from your system because on a certain date it would do damage to your system. I removed the program from my main computer, but I ran the program on a test system after that date, and it did no harm.

You typically receive hoaxes about viruses through your e-mail system. The e-mail you receive is acting as a virus alert, but unfortunately, there is no actual virus to report — it is a hoax. The benefit of such hoaxes is for the creators of the actual viruses; hackers hope that you receive so many hoaxes that you eventually ignore true virus alerts.

If you receive an e-mail or other form of notice about a virus, check it against a virus hoax list to see whether the warning message is a hoax or has merit. Most virus protection software manufacturers keep an up-to-date list. For example, McAfee lists hoaxes at http://vil.mcafee.com/hoax.asp. You can also go to a generic hoax site like Hoaxbusters, which is found at http://www.hoaxbusters.org.