What is a Virus Hoax and How can I tell if an email is a virus hoax?
Hoax warnings are typically scare tactics started by malicious people
who are trying to create a panic in the internet community.
If you are still not sure if a virus warning is a hoax, please forward
the email to
IT-Help@indstate.edu, but
please do not forward the email to anyone
else.
If this virus is found to be legitimate, The Office of Information
Technology will notify the ISU Community via
Global Email.
Characteristics of Virus Hoax email:
The characteristic elements of a hoax can contain some of the following
language:
- The hoax contains language to "forward," "pass on" or "share" the message. Whenever you see such language in an email, there is a strong possibility it's a hoax (or scam).
- The hoax usually mentions a well respected company (Microsoft, IBM, AOL, so on...) in order to gain some credibility but there is no way to verify this statement.
- The hoax suggests you avoid email with a particular title and
suggests you do not open it.
- The hoax is filled with broken English and/or lots of misspellings.
The Office of formation Technology recommends the user first check
the web sites listed below to see if the hoax
can be identified:
http://ciac.llnl.gov/ciac/CIACHoaxes.html or
http://www.datafellows.com/virus-info/hoax/
We also have a listing of current viruses and hoaxes available at:
http://www1.indstate.edu/oit1/userservices/ithelp/security/virus.html
The Office of Information Technology also recommends that email attachments from unknown sources should never be opened (in the case of a document attachment) or run (in the case of an executable program attachment) even when there is no known virus "going around."