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Other Considerations July 2000 • Vol.8 Issue 7 Page(s) 138-139 in print issue |
E-mail Maladies Beware Of Message Scams, Hoaxes & Chain Letters | ||
 E-mail makes it easy to quickly send information. But it also removes the safeguards we depend on with regular mail. First, an important letter looks and feels different than junk mail. Second, it is more expensive and time-consuming to develop a list of physical names and addresses than a list of e-mail addresses. And third, it still costs about 33 cents to send a letter, while sending an e-mail is practically free. The lack of these safeguards has lead to problems, including spam, scams, hoaxes, fake virus warnings, and chain letters. For information on spam, see "‘Spamitize' Your Inbox" in this issue. Here we look at the other problems.  Scams There's no doubt fraudulent and deceptive activity has found its way to the Web. Early this year, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) was involved in the largest ever international law enforcement project to fight and target Web sites that make fraudulent or deceptive claims. The operation, called GetRichQuick.con, included 150 organizations from 28 countries. The United States agencies included 49 state and local consumer protection agencies, 34 Attorney Generals, and 39 Better Business Bureaus. As a result of the project, the FTC found more than 1,600 sites in violation of the law. A scam is a fraudulent scheme designed to take your money, usually without providing anything of value. You will find scams in the e-mail you receive as well as on various Web pages and in chat rooms. Some of the most common scams include the following: • Pyramid schemes where you can earn money by recruiting other sales-persons rather than selling a product. • Being paid to surf the Internet. •Work-at-home schemes such as stuffing envelopes and making crafts. •Outrageous product claims and outright fraud. Examples include herbal weight loss and hair loss prevention. •Fraudulent and self-serving stock tips. Your best protection is common sense. If it sounds too good to be true, it's probably a scam. Why would a stranger give you a valuable stock tip rather than taking advantage of it himself? Why would someone pay you to stuff envelopes when machines can do it quicker and cheaper? If you receive what you suspect is a scam, you should contact your local law enforcement agency or the FTC. Hoaxes A hoax is an untrue and outrageous claim meant to trick or deceive. Unlike a scam, you are not asked to send money. Examples of hoaxes include flesh-eating bananas or businessmen having their kidneys harvested. These usually start as a sick joke but then quickly find a life of their own as they are passed from one unsuspecting reader to another. Your best protection against hoaxes is to ask yourself, "If this were true, is it the kind of story I would see on national news?" If you have not seen it on the news, the message is almost certainly a hoax. If you want to investigate further, visit the Urban Legends Reference Pages (http://www.snopes.com) or Internet ScamBusters (http://www.scambusters.org). If you do receive a hoax, delete it. Fake Virus Warnings Fake virus warnings are a type of hoax. However, they are passed along by so many people that they deserve special coverage. The first fake virus warning to receive widespread attention was the "Good Times" message that first appeared in late 1994. For one version of the message, see the sidebar "Good Times Virus." It is not scary by today's standards, but this was a long time ago in "Internet time," and users were not nearly as sophisticated as they are today. Any time you receive a virus warning, you should keep the following in mind: •A virus or Trojan horse can only be delivered as part of an attached program or document. Running an infected program or reading an infected document will infect your system. •A virus or Trojan horse cannot infect your system just by you reading an e-mail message. E-mail messages cannot contain a virus or Trojan horse. •The Federal Communications Commission never has and never will issue a virus warning. Viruses are not part of its mission. Remember the Melissa virus? You heard about it on television news, in newspapers, and in almost all the computer magazines. If there were another virus making the rounds, you would hear about it the same way. No respectable company would send the warning out by e-mail and then depend on the recipients to pass it along. If you receive a virus warning: 1. Do not panic. Most likely, it is a hoax. 2. Check the two Web sites listed below to double-check that it is a hoax. If it is, delete the message. 3. If you do not see the hoax listed on these Web sites, run your antivirus program to be safe and then contact the program's vendor. It will be able to tell you if the warning is real or not. 4. Whatever you do, do not pass along the warning until you have checked to make sure that it is for real. The U.S. Department of Energy's Computer Incident Advisory Capability (http://ciac.llnl.gov/ciac/CIACHoaxes.html) provides information on the latest virus hoaxes. Symantec, the makers of Norton AntiVirus, also maintains a database of virus hoaxes at http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/hoax.html. Virus hoaxes have two impacts. First, since almost all of them are fake, and many of the recipients know this, they make the sender look naive and uninformed. Second, the constant stream of virus warnings makes people far less likely to listen when a credible agency issues a real warning. Chain Letters Chain letters , either printed or electronic, have three parts: a hook, a threat, and a request. In addition, chain letters may contain both a scam and a hoax. The hook is to get your interest. It is usually a message about quick riches but may also be about viruses, other dangers, or even helping sick kids. After the hook comes the threat. Most threats warn you that something terrible will happen if you do not "maintain the chain" by sending out so many copies. Others will use technical-sounding language or play on your sympathy to get you to pass on the letter. A chain letter is like a virus, only it must convince you to do its reproducing for it. After the threat comes the request. Many chain letters ask you to mail money to the names on the letter. Others ask you to distribute the letter to as many people as possible or to take some other action. Here are some facts you need to know regarding claims you may see in various chain letters: •Chain letters that ask for money are illegal no matter how the request is phrased. •You will not get any money by sending on a chain letter. •Adding a request for information does not make an otherwise illegal chain letter legal. •There is no dying little girl or boy who will get money from any organization if you forward a chain letter. •It's a safe bet that no one—not Bill Gates, Microsoft, The Gap, or anyone else—will give you money or anything else for sending out chain letters. •If a chain letter contains an e-mail address in the body, it is most likely the address of someone the original author of the chain letter does not like. Do not complain about the letter to him or her. •If a chain letter discusses the "evil" behavior of some corporation or organization, it is almost always untrue and the name of an organization the original author of the chain letter has a grudge against. Back when the Internet had much less bandwidth, chain letters were a significant drain on resources. Now, they are little more than an annoyance. If you receive one, the best thing to do is delete it and not worry about your luck. Protect Yourself If you have had your e-mail account for any length of time, you have probably received a significant quantity of junk mail. Here are some general tips to protect yourself: •Never respond to unsolicited e-mail. •Don't answer e-mail from unknown senders. •If an e-mail message sounds too good or strange to be true, it is most likely a hoax. •If the message were true and important, you would have heard about it on the news. •Never forward an e-mail message unless you are 100% certain it is true. In all cases, your best course of action is to throw any junk e-mail away, just as you do with all the junk mail that fills your postal mailbox.  by Ronny Richardson
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