Chain Letters / Email Hoaxes

Believe it or not, there are some very optimistic people out there who truly believe they have a chance of coming into a major windfall if they help out an exotic Prince from Nigeria move some money around using their own bank account. The best rule of thumb? If it sounds too good to be true - it probably is!

How to tell the junk from the good oil..

That's an easy one - it's ALL junk! A hoax email is designed simply to be a nuisance and they truly do clog up our Inboxes, so get out your virtual pest spray and say BEGONE!

But seriously, if you receive an email that asks you to "PSST! pass it on" - take a moment to do a bit of research before you send it to everyone in your address book. Jump online to Symantec's hoax list and look for your email in the list - for example, you've received an email which appears to be from Microsoft, offering $800 if you pass the message around. Look in the list and you'll find some more info about the $800 from Microsoft hoax... confirming it's a bogus email and should be deleted.

More Information on Hoaxes

| Wikipedia List of Computer Hoaxes
| Anti Virus software manufacturer Sophos list of hoaxes