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Virus Hoaxes
Many times hoaxes can be as damaging as a real virus for several reasons.
When a hoax is recieved through email it tells you to send the email
to everyone you know. Sometimes the hoax is just an attempt to clog email
servers with useless information about stuff that doesn't exist or has
nothing to do with the company that is mentioned in the email.
Hoaxes such as emails stating the user will get a discount from a store
for sending the email to a certain amount of people, or the one about
Netscape and AOL merging and Microsoft developing a email tracking system.
This one says that the user will get paid $5 for everyone that they send
it to, then $3 for everyperson that those people send it to, and then
a $1 for every person that those people send it to.
When this happens mail servers get clogged as people send it to everyone
in their contacts. So if 1 person sends it to 10 people, those 10 send
it to 10 each, soon it multiplies so much that email servers get bogged
down making it difficult for legitimate mail to get through.
Another result of a hoax is damage to the users computer. Usually in
the email is a professional looking set of instructions telling the user
how to find a "virus" on their computer. The file that is listed
as a "virus" is almost always a legitimate file used by the
Operating System. Depending on which file was deleted will determine
what kind of damage will occur to the users computer.
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