A Virus and a Hoax for Valentine's Day      
If you receive an e-card for Valentine's Day this year, make sure it's authentic and you know who the sender is before opening it, the FBI warns. Increasingly, e-card notices with spoofed addresses are being used to trick people into clicking on links that download malicious programs to their home or office computers.
 
Nigerian 419 schemes      
Before the popularity of email, Nigerian 419 scams were originally sent over fax machines and by snail mail. Those who have contacted the scammers are presented with many forged or official documents in an attempt to convince the victims that the promise of money is legit. Meantime, they claim fees must be paid and accounts must be setup. All this money is at the victim's expense. Loss of your own funds is the easy part. Some who have responded to Nigerian 419 scams have become victims of kidnapping and murder.
 
Free Nokia phone hoax      
The Grim Reality: Once again, the old adage proves true - 'If it sounds too good to be true, it is too good to be true.' There's no free phone and, further, there's not even a valid anna.swelan@nokia.com address.
 
Penny Brown      
Several variations of this email hoax exist, each claiming a child named Penny Brown is missing, from locations as diverse as Ontario, Texas, and South Carolina. Nearly identical versions of the hoax claim Kelsey Brooke Jones and C.J. Mineo Jr as the missing children. The hoaxes have circulated for a number of years.
 
Restoring Sulfnbk.exe      
SULFNBK.EXE is a utility shipped as part of the Windows 98 operating system that allows users to restore long file names - and is now the victim of a bogus virus warning. The hoax message urges users to search their systems for the presence of SULFNBK.EXE and, if found, delete it. Of course, it's a legitimate Win98 operating system file, so anyone running Windows 98 will find it. And many, it seems, have deleted it. Following are the steps to take to restore SULFNBK.EXE from your Windows 98 operating system CD. You will want to have your Windows 98 operating CD in the CD-ROM drive bay. If the program autoruns (launches), just click Exit.
 
Returned/Unable to Deliver      
Example of hoax email: There is a new virus going arround in the last couple of days!!! DO NOT open or even look at any mail that you get thar says: "Returned or Unable to Deliver" This virus will attach itself to your computer components and render them useless. Immediately delete any mail items that says this. AOL has said this is a very danderous virus, and there is NO remedy for it at this time, Please Be Careful, And forward to all your on-line friends A.S.A.P. Remember: Hoaxes are a waste of both time and money. Please don't forward them on to others. And if you are tempted to forward something just in case, read the article Toxic Excuses instead.
 
Restoring Sulfnbk.exe      
SULFNBK.EXE is a utility shipped as part of the Windows 98 operating system that allows users to restore long file names - and is now the victim of a bogus virus warning. The hoax message urges users to search their systems for the presence of SULFNBK.EXE and, if found, delete it. Of course, it's a legitimate Win98 operating system file, so anyone running Windows 98 will find it. And many, it seems, have deleted it. Following are the steps to take to restore SULFNBK.EXE from your Windows 98 operating system CD. You will want to have your Windows 98 operating CD in the CD-ROM drive bay. If the program autoruns (launches), just click Exit.
 
Hoax Warnings      
Hoax warnings are typically scare alerts started by malicious people - and passed on by innocent users who think they are helping the community by spreading the warning.
 
The hoax that cried virus      
Computer virus hoaxes have been around for nearly as long as the first virus. Just after the 1988 introduction of the infamous Morris Internet worm, the first hoax began circulating. One might even consider hoaxes to be a cottage industry for the virus writers. Indeed, hoaxes, with their ominous warnings or fictitious promises of instant wealth, often seem far more believable to users than do legitimate warnings of actual threats. This in itself is disturbing, as once burned by a hoax many choose to disregard valid alerts as well.
 
Tell-tale signs of a hoax      
The G virus warning is just one of many hoaxes circulating in email. This one threatens to send your password to "every computer system in the world" if you don't forward the warning to 25 other people within 48 hours. Judging from the multiple instances of > at the beginning of each line, the copy I received had obviously been forwarded dozens of times. This begs a perhaps unanswerable question. Why do so many believe these types of email?
 
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