Email Virus Hoaxes, Urban Legends, Urban Myths!

All encompassing phrases that mean e-mail you don't want and don't need.

The Internet is a great place but like many great places, like your kitchen sink, it's a breeding ground for viruses and, like people "fake sick" sometimes, some find it amusing to fake a virus... on the internet, that's an internet email hoax and they are abundant.

A lot of times our well meaning friends and family send us these.  Sometimes because they are funny, sometimes because they are so believable that they are passed off as truth from one person to the next until they find their way into your inbox.

For a satirical example, check out this whopper of an email hoax! (this one you CAN forward!)

The problem is that a lot of people do believe them and without question and without checking they click the forward button and send them on to everyone in their address book.

So who cares?  No one if it's a hoax about Bonsai Kittens - who could really believe Kittens living in jars?

What about Virus Hoaxes?  Best case scenario, you get a warning about a virus, you filter out any mail with the word "invitation" in it (if that's the subject of the alleged virus email) and you send it on to 20 people to warn them, they each send it on to 20 people (do the math, that's now 421 people have this starting with you).

Still nothing much to worry about except you miss the e-mail invitation to your Auntie's 60th birthday party - but what if the email instructs readers to check their computers for a file that indicates a virus as in the teddy bear virus hoax?  Then you have 400 people potentially deleting a system file from their computer that is a real pain to get back!

That's why these things can be harmful.

And that's why this site is here.  To help you determine what email is real - and what should just be deleted.