I get warnings about Internet threats on a regular basis and I'm sure you do as well. Some are genuine, but many of them are sent by well-intentioned family and freinds who are trying to protect me who have been drawn into forwarding and promoting a hoax.
So how do you sort out which threat messages are real and which ones are hoaxes before you hit that "Forward" button?
First, go to this website -
http://www.symantec.com/business/security_response/threatexplorer/risks/hoaxes.jsp
The folks at Symantec are usually on top of both the new virus/ phishing threats and those messages that contain hoaxes. If you enter part of the title from the message you have received into the search function there and the message you received comes up, with a full description of a hoax, please DO NOT FORWARD THE MESSAGE. That only makes it easier for hoaxes to propogate, and it may even be an embarrassment when you get a message back from someone you forwarded it to, telling you that you too were drawn into a hoax.
Still not sure?
Try this .. go to Google search and enter the title of the email you are wondering about, then add "+ hoax". There are a number of other great sites out on the Internet that also keep tabs on hoaxes, and it might be that you will find a description of one that you are dealing with there. Hoaxes tend to be long-lived, and I have sometimes had to tell people that something they thought was a genuine threat started as a hoax more than 5 years ago.
If you try both of the techniques above and see no evidence of a hoax - start forwarding!
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