Virus Hoax - fake virus alerts - virus warnings that aren't needed.

A computer virus hoax is a false email message warning the recipient of a virus that is going around. The message usually serves as a chain e-mail that tells the recipient to forward it to everyone they know.

How to Identify a Hoax

Most hoaxes are easily identified by the fact that they say the virus will do nearly impossible things, like blow up the recipient's computer. They often claim to be from reputable organizations such as Microsoft or IBM, but include emotive language and encouragement to forward the message which would not come from an official source.

Virus hoaxes are usually harmless, and do nothing more than annoy people who know it's a hoax or waste the time of people who forward the message. However, a number of hoaxes have warned users that vital system files are viruses, and encourages the user to delete the file, possibly damaging the system. An example of this is the jdbgmgr.exe hoax.

Some consider virus hoaxes, and other chain e-mails to be a computer worm in and of themselves. They self replicate by exploiting users' ignorance and emotional responses.

Hoaxes are not to be confused with computer pranks. Computer pranks are programs that perform unwanted and annoying actions on a computer, like randomly move the mouse.

The consensus of anti-virus specialists is that recipients should delete virus hoaxes instead of forwarding them. For example, McAfee says: "We are advising users who receive the email to delete it and DO NOT pass it on as this is how an email HOAX propagates."

List of Virus Hoaxes