tranfree issue 32 - 31st May 2001

Virus Hoaxes - Almost as Bad as the Real Thing

By Alex Eames

I received an email this morning containing what looked like one of those virus hoax messages. But it was one that I hadn't seen before, so I checked it out at...

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

...sure enough it was a hoax.

Let's try to stamp out these silly virus hoaxes. Some of them are downright dangerous because they encourage you to delete system files.

I sent the following message to the full (long) list of people who received the original email...

"That email was incorrect. This virus warning is in fact a hoax.

Check out the symantec antivirus center comments at the following site...

http://symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/
sulfnbk.exe.warning.html

To prevent the future perpetuation of these hoaxes, and the embarrassment they cause, I suggest checking at...

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

...before passing on these kinds of emails.

Alex Eames
http://www.translatortips.com
helping translators do better business"

Later on I got another forwarded copy from someone who sent it to an eGroups mailing list. If people would only check before posting it would save an awful lot of bandwidth. Virus hoaxes do cause harm because they waste people's time and damage their credibility.

Alex Eames is the founder of translatortips.com,
editor of tranfree and author of the eBook...

How to Earn $80,000+ Per Year as a Freelance Translator
http://www.translatortips.net/ht50.html

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