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. If you receive a warning about a security threat, please look into it further before you forward it to other users. Internet worm Unlike a virus, an Internet worm does not infect other files. It creates copies of itself over and over again until it exhausts system resources. The best known Internet worm was "Loveletter", which was actually a mixed threat: a mass-mailing Internet worm, an overwriting file virus, and a password-stealing Trojan. Macro virus Basically, macro viruses reside in documents from languages like Visual Basic, Microsoft Office and most commonly Word and Excel. Just like any other viruses, loss of critical data is the common effect.

The most common hoax, however, is the hoax virus. This usually consists of an email message warning recipients about a new and terribly destructive virus. It ends by suggesting that the reader should warn his or her friends and colleagues, perhaps by simply forwarding the original message to everyone in their address book. The result is a rapidly growing proliferation of pointless emails that can increase to such an extent that they overload systems.

There are lots of virus hoaxes going around, especially the email type. Good Times is the most well known hoax with plenty to follow. The bottom line is that you can never get a virus from just downloading and reading your mail. It is possible to get a virus from an email attachment - but you have to save and open/run the attachment to risk infection. Hoaxes are often official sounded, unsolicited, and reference important sound official like places. If you think you have a virus or have received a legitimate warning, check out my site to confirm your suspicions. More often than not, if it was unsolicited email sent to you it is probably a hoax.

Virus hoaxes are false reports about non-existent viruses, often claiming to do impossible things. Unfortunately some recipients occasionally believe a hoax to be a true virus warning and may take drastic action (such as shutting down their network). Some hoaxes cause as much trouble as viruses by causing massive amounts of unnecessary e-mail.

A deception or a fabrication. Internet hoaxes often take the form of dire warnings about new, and harmful, viruses that are being transmitted electronically (but that do not actually exist).

A hoax is a warning message of a recent virus attack that is not legitimate. Typically spread by email, this false warning has the intent of spreading fear and wasting the recipient’s time.

Hoaxes are warnings of alleged viruses and other dangers often spread via email. The recipients are asked to forward the emailed warning to friends and acquaintances. Most of the time, these messages are just scare stories that waste your time (and thus money).

Anything deliberately faked or being passed off as legitimate paranormal phenomena for the purpose of notoriety, money, or other personal gain.

there many hoax email messages circulating. They often warn of dangerous virus but sometimes warn of supposed happenings in the 'real' world. The idea of the hoaxer is usually simply to alarm people and cause chaos, but some hoaxes can cause real damage - see the Hoax Web Page for further details.

Usually an e-mail that gets mailed in chain letter fashion describing some devastating, highly unlikely type of virus. Hoaxes are detectable as having no file attachment, no reference to a third party who can validate the claim. Note: Some "hoaxes" instruct you to change or delete a specific system file or setting which can damage your system.

something intended to deceive; deliberate trickery intended to gain an advantage

subject to a palyful hoax or joke

a chain email 'X' informing a user to be careful of email 'Y' that claims to be a PC destroying virus when you read it and to send email 'X' to everyone the user knows

a deceptive act or scheme that plays upon the credulity of others

a deliberate fraud

a false virus threat

a forgery, and forgers require a genuine from which to copy

a kind of trick

a message or warning that is not true

a message that contains a warning about a new IT problem, but which is not based on actual technical facts

a message, typically distributed via e-mail or newsgroups, that is written to deliberately spread fear, uncertainty and doubt

a message, typically distributed via email or newsgroups, which is written to deliberately spread fear, uncertainty and doubt

an action done to trick or deceive a person

an attempt to deceive, to make the public believe into a strange idea, generally involving a material object which should conduct to illicit financial or material gain, or appealing to religious beliefs and charity, or just as a practical joke

an attempt to trick one or more people to believe that something false is real

an email message, typically sent from a friend, that warns you of some impending doom

an email that requests to be forwarded

an intentional deception

an outrageous, ingenious, dramatic, or sensational act of deception that captures the attention and often the imagination of the public

a trick message that wourl warn you of a virus that may not exist

a warning about a nonexistent malicious program

a worrisome warning, usually transmitted by e-mail

1. Any mythical problem, such as the widespread fear, spread by email alerts, that the file sulfnbk.exe is a virus. 2. Any software that intentionally misleads the user.

A bogus warning usually intended to frighten or mislead users. Typically, the warning arrives in an e-mail suggesting that the recipient forward the message on to other users. The best course of action is to merely delete these hoax emails.

A wrong information. Often these are "virus warnings", etc. Such forwarded messages in form of chain letters often contain instructions to do certain things which may ill effect your computer, similar to what an actual virus might do. PLEASE DO NOT SEND such virus warnings to the BibelCenter. Information about hoax mails can be found on websites of anti-virus software providers, such as the following: http://www.tu-berlin.de/www/software/hoax/ http://www.hoaxinfo.de

This is usually an email that warns of a non-existent virus or event that does more harm in spreading fear. Usually an email that gets mailed in chain letter fashion describing some devastating highly unlikely type of virus or event. You can usually spot a hoax because there's no file attachment, no reference/url to a third party who can validate the claim and the general 'tone' of the message which tends to have many misspellings.

A report about a non-existent virus.

A fake story, myth or legend used to deceive people. more.

an email message that is usually mailed in chain letter fashion, and which describes some devastating highly unlikely type of virus

A hoax is an email, which contains a warning of a dangerous virus. However, this warning has no viable background and serves the one and only purpse to confuse un-experienced users. Like chainletters such email spread pretty quick and prevent thousands of internet users from doing their work. Do not forward such emails

There are many hoaxes continually popping up on the nets. False viruses are the most common of these with names like "Join the Crew" or "Pen Pal Greetings", but there are many more themes that keep recurring. Appeals to charity is a common theme for a hoax, sometimes partially based in fact. If you get a chain letter appeal about Jessica Mydek or Craig Shergold or anything involving the Make A Wish Foundation, please check it out first before spreading it. There are also lots of stories going around about Bill Gates and money-making schemes and expensive cookie recipes and stolen kidneys, all of which are interesting stories, but usually false or even fraudulent.

A hoax is an attempt to trick an audience into believing that something false is real. Generally there is some material object involved, which is actually a forgery. Unlike a fraud or con (which usually has an audience of one or a few), which are made for illicit financial or material gain, or a fraud which is perpetrated to support a false religion, a hoax is often perpetrated as a practical joke with a humorous intent, to cause embarrassment, for personal aggrandizement or to serve political purposes.

This is usually an email message that warns of a non-existant virus. This can do harm by spreading fear.

Basically, a Hoax is a notice about a nonexistent virus. These messages are usually sent out via e-mail in order to spread rumors about false viruses on the Internet. Occasionally, Hoax warnings include technical words. On some other occasions, the names of some press agencies are mentioned in the heading of the warnings (CBS..). This way, the hoax author attempts to trick users into believing that they have received a warning about a real virus. Hoax warnings normally encourage users to forward the message to all the e-mail contacts. Unfortunately, many computer users use the Internet to warn friends of these supposed threats, which only perpetuates this problem.

Normally applied to a virus. A hoax is a faked warning about an imaginary, normally very widespread and damaging, virus. The intention is to cause users to damage their own systems while attempting to manually disinfect a none existent virus.

Hoax - Hierbei handelt es sich um eine E-Mail, die vor einem nicht exisitierenden Virus warnt. Die eigentliche Bedrohung entsteht durch die schnelle Verbreitung dieser E-Mail und den damit verbundenen stärkeren Datenverkehr.

Explicitly meaning, in a technical sense of network security research, a form of chain letter, carrying a false warning of a internet security threat that doesn't exist. Hoaxes are distinguished by a lack of technical detail and legitimate contact information, references to authorities that are false, warnings of extreme damage which the putative internet security threat will cause, with statements saying that the internet security threat is too new or spreading too rapidly for valid internet security threat researchers to know anything about. A universal factor is the attempt to have readers forward the message to friends, relatives, and contacts. This, of course, is the viral component: the hoax message suckers the user into retransmitting and spreading it.

(transitive verb) To trick into believing or accepting as genuine something false and often preposterous

false alerts sent by malicious people trying to frighten or in some way, mislead inocent users into spreading their message to everyone they know

Usually a fraudulent e-mail that gets sent in chain-letter fashion, describing some devastating, highly unlikely type of virus or any other large, usually negative event. Hoaxes are detectable because they have no file attachment, have no reference to a third party who can validate the claim, and by the overly dramatic tone of the message.

A Hoax is a type of chain letter that contains false information, often spreading a false virus warning. Do note that we generally only focus on virus-related hoaxes. We can not evaluate whether non-computer related folklore stories are urban legends or true stories. Check www.snopes.com for general urban legends.

A hoax is an attempt to trick an audience into believing that something false is real. There is often some material object (e.g., snake oil) involved which is actually a forgery; however, it is possible to perpetrate a hoax by making only true statements using unfamiliar wording or context (see DHMO). Unlike a fraud or con (which usually has an audience of one or a few), which are made for illicit financial or material gain, a hoax is often perpetrated as a practical joke, to cause embarrassment, or to provoke social change by making people aware of something.