[rhettman5]

If you are as lucky as I, you have at least one friend or relative who LOVES to E-Mail you with every new hint or threat of a virus.

Well meaning, but agrivating.

Send them this page and hint that they might check before they pass on their "desperate warning" you'll both have a better day!
: http://vmyths.com/hoax.cfm ...Rhett

[TonyKlein]

Hi Rhett,

Very useful indeed!

Greetz,

[TooToby]

Great idea Rhett. No way are we going to stop those hoaxes, but if we at least enlighten the people who send them to us, maybe it will slow them down a little, and make them think before sending on the next one.

http://www.snopes2.com/ is another great site for checking out hoaxes. They don't pull any punches if you want to send the page regarding the particular hoax back to the gullible person who sent it to you in the first place. It is also interesting to read just for the entertainment!

[RandyG]

http://www.datafellows.com/virus-info/hoax/

This is the Hoax site I use to inform others. They make the following statement at the top of the page.

This page is considered the industry standard information source for new virus hoaxes and false alerts.

[littlemar]

http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/

I have found the unusal ones at this site. Working in the IS Dept I have received many emails stating "thought you should know about this so you can warn others". Almost 90% are hoaxes and the other 10% I already know about. If it's legit I send out an email stating what should be looked for and how to handle it. I also have a draft saved that I send to those users that forward the "warning" indicating "How to Spot a Hoax".

Even this doesn't work since you would need to read the document and I don't think they do. If you really read the hoax I would think a rational person would question some of the statements or why didn't IS send something to us if it's true. This part of my job drives me crazy.

littlemar

[Rockn]

Most AV sites have an extensive listing of hoaxes anyway...where do you think these other sites get their info from??

[hewee]

http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/hoax.html

http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/jokes.html

The jokes are programs that run that do no harm but can make you think you have a virus.