Hoaxes are mind-boggling. The hoax author uses a tiny bit of truth, a lot of misinformation and half-truths, and twists the information out of proportion in an elaborate jumble to dare your intelligence. Many hoax authors use technical language or a fake association to a well-known person or company to appear legitimate. Hoaxes are not a threat to our personal safety but they can cause a panic or shutdown of an internet server from an over-abundance of network traffic. Hoaxes do nothing more than clutter the internet and waste everyone’s time.
The main identifier of the majority of hoaxes is the urgency of the content and the urgency for you to send the email “to everyone you know”. Subjects can range from: a threatening computer virus that compromises your health to a large corporation paying you monies for circulating the email to victims of a natural disaster needing immediate help to a chain letter to a get-rich-quick scheme. The subjects of hoaxes range wide enough for the majority of persons receiving them to question their truthfulness and validity at some time or other. As far as I know, there is no American law enforcement agency that investigates the origin of hoaxes since they do not threaten the safety of people. However, in July 2008, an American man was arrested for an internet video hoax by “sending threats in interstate commerce and falsely claiming to have tampered with a consumer product”.
If you receive an urgent or extremely important email telling you to forward the message to everyone you know or to as many persons as possible, chances are more than good that the email is a hoax. Writers of hoaxes (whether a virus or internet hoax) depend on partial knowledge and intelligence of the recipient. Getting an insider email from a friend of a friend of a friend who has contact with AOL, Bill Gates, FCC, IBM, Miller, Disney, Nokia or any other well-known company, may allow anyone to consider the validity of the news. What do I have to lose by trying this? What do I have to lose by taking this precaution? Why shouldn’t I tell so-and-so “just in case”? Other than causing possible server shutdowns and unnecessary time and cost to companies by an overabundance of internet traffic (as was the problem with the Melissa and Love Letter viruses) an internet panic can develop. The best way to be certain that an email is or isn’t a hoax, whether it be a virus warning, a chain letter, or a get-rich-quick scheme, is to check hoax lists at Snopes or Cyber Criminals Most Wanted.