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Virus hoaxes

What is a virus hoax?

A virus hoax is generally an e-mail which is sent to people with warnings of a virus, and advice that the user should pass the warning around to as many people as possible.

These hoaxes generally have a number of similarities.

  1. They are reputed to come from a well known computing company like IBM or Sun.
  2. They state that opening an certain e-mail will have extreme consequences for your computer.
  3. They ask you to forward the warning as far and wide as possible.

Bank hoaxes and scams

A bank scam may mimic the style of an 'official' email from a bank. As such, emails from banks should be ignored unless you have explicitly asked the bank to communicate with you via e-mail.

Even if you have explicitly asked a bank to communicate with you via e-mail, be extremely cautious if you choose to enter your account details such as your BSB number, account number or pin into a website supplied via e-mail, as the web page may be a forgery. Banks will usually not request such sensitive information such as your pin via email.

Anti-Virus hoax websites

The problems caused by hoaxes

The problems these virus hoaxes cause are three fold. Firstly, they encourage the 'cry wolf' scenario, where people will begin to become blasé about such a warning, and that when a real warning comes along from their IT people, it could be ignored.

Secondly, they place a large strain on the e-mail system. If you send it to 20 people and they then forward it to another 20, who forward it again, soon the number of copies of this warning will number thousands upon thousands of copies.

Lastly this leads to the IT people having to filter through many false warnings from customers who have received these e-mails.

So what do I do if I get a warning email?

Firstly check the validity of the warning. You can do this by looking up virus on any of the hoax websites above. Alternatively, contact the ITS Service Desk (staff are advised to contact their local TWP/IT rep) for more information.

Secondly regardless of the warning, do NOT pass it on. Contact the ITS Service Desk or your TWP/IT rep. If it is legitimate, they will organise for the information to be distributed throughout the University.