Email Hoaxes
809 Area Code Scam      
Netlore Archive: Email alerts circulating since 1996 warn consumers not to comply with telephone, pager, or email requests to dial phone numbers beginning with the area code 809, 284, or 876
 
90# telephone hoax      
Description: A hoax. The text of one such email follows
 
Advice      
email hoax Advice
 
Bill Gates Email Tracking      
Bill Gates Email Tracking
 
Combination Hoaxes      
Dire sounding warnings from friends, families, and even strangers, greet us from our inbox on a regular basis. Despite their better judgement, many forward these on to others "just in case". The situation worsens with hoaxes that combine legitimate virus information with bogus details.
 
Alleged "Good Times" Virus      
A rumor has been circulating on the Internet and other on-line services, that the "FCC" released a public notice warning about an alleged "Good Times" computer virus. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (U.S. FCC) did not issue such a notice. This rumor has recycled several times in the last few months.
 
Fw: Fw: Fw: Hoax      
Mass-mailing email worms don't have to have a malicious payload to cause trouble. Just the threat of their spread can result in a knee-jerk reaction of shutting down mail-servers until signature updates can be obtained. Wonder why no one shuts down the mail server when a hoax gets going? From a prevalency standpoint, it seems hoaxes win hands down. The only difference is, the email worm sends itself automatically while the email hoax relies on the user to forward to everyone they know... and there seems to be no shortage of users willing to oblige that request.
 
THE "Good Times" VIRUS IS AN URBAN LEGEND      
In the early part of December, CIAC started to receive information requests about a supposed "virus" which could be contracted via America OnLine, simply by reading a message. The following is the message that CIAC received: Here is some important information. Beware of a file called Goodtimes. Happy Chanukah everyone, and be careful out there. There is a virus on America Online being sent by E-Mail. If you get anything called "Good Times", DON'T read it or download it. It is a virus that will erase your hard drive. Forward this to all your friends. It may help them a lot.
 
What Are Internet Hoaxes and Chain Letters?      
Internet hoaxes and chain letters are e-mail messages written with one purpose; to be sent to everyone you know. The messages they contain are usually untrue. A few of the sympathy messages do describe a real situation but that situation was resolved years ago so the message is not valid and has not been valid for many years. Hoax messages try to get you to pass them on to everyone you know using several different methods of social engineering. Most of the hoax messages play on your need to help other people. Who wouldn't want to warn their friends about some terrible virus that is destroying people's systems? Or, how could you not want to help this poor little girl who is about to die from cancer? It is hard to say no to these messages when you first see them, though after a few thousand have passed through your mail box you (hopefully) delete them without even looking.
 
The Risk and Cost of Hoaxes      
The cost and risk associated with hoaxes may not seem to be that high, and isn't when you consider the cost of handling one hoax on one machine. However, if you consider everyone that receives a hoax, that small cost gets multiplied into some pretty significant costs. For example, if everyone on the Internet were to receive one hoax message and spend one minute reading and discarding it, the cost would be something like: 50,000,000 people * 1/60 hour * $50/hour = $41.7 million
 
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