Hello all,
I truly hope that this will help you understand not only the implications of sending false mailings out but how to spot them and prevent them from ever getting around.
Hoax mailings and false information mailings usually have some wording that can help you in spotting them. They can also appeal to your sense of Fear, Concern and Greed. I'm going to go through a few of them now but you must realise that emails can be changed over time and so this information may become obsolete if not kept up to date.
FEAR
The virus which will eat your hard drive if you open the email with "XYZ" in the subject line, or twenty people died or lost their jobs because they did not pass this message on. (You can substitute any kind of accident or catastrophes for XYZ).
CONCERN
You can make a terminal cancer patient's dream come true, or induce XYZ Corp to give x cents to charity for every e-mail message you get people to send to it. This also contains the petition type of email chains. (You can put in any company name but the main ones used here are Microsoft and AOL).
GREED
You will get x dollars/pounds/euro's for every pyramid of recipients you can start by mailing this to someone, or sending your credit card number to someone. (Greed also contains the African money scam which has been going around for over a 100 years. Corrupt official has money but needs to send it out of the country to your bank account etc).
Common used phrases:
This email is not a hoax.
These six words are almost a complete give-away. This should immediately get your alarm bells ringing but to be on the safe side you better keep reading to make your own decision.
This has come from a
The fact that such trusted people make this mistake is far more damaging than if "normal" people did it. You must take personal responsibilities for all emails you send out, not rely on other peoples words as they can easily be mistaken or even made up. (Please read the part about False Authority Syndrome)
This has been sent from
If Microsoft wanted to warn people of a whole in Windows Software they wouldn't send emails out, instead they would put a patch out or a security update to resolve it. As for the news sites if it states it came from the BBC then check on the BBC website. It would have to be a very high top story front page material to reach emails sending out so it will be on the front page of the web site too. (Hoaxes very often contain company names in a vain attempt to give it authority and a sense of importance).
You must delete as soon as you see it
So many emails are going around telling users what to do. They are not just telling you to delete a file but they are ordering you to do it without question and complete obedience. The files you are actually deleting are system files themselves. Often deleting these files will take a long time to recover from and will open up security holes in the operating system. (A simple Google search will tell you what the file does and if it is needed. A search will also show results of the hoax email and how to recover from it when you do delete it).
Email to your all your friends/Send to everybody now!!!!
Hoaxes wouldn't be affective if they just asked you to do something. Instead they try and TELL/ORDER you to do it. If the message was that important then the people you would send it to would already know about it by the proper channels.
Send to 5/x amount of friends for (something to happen)
There is no code out there that can perform actions on your PC for something to happen when you use the forward key. Impossible. The only way this would work is if it was in a tracked link within the email itself (forward-to-a-friend) and then it would require your action. (You know it doesn't work so don't waste peoples time sending them on to x amount of people).
No Remedy/Resolve/Solution available
Anti-virus companies actually employ virus generators to try and fool their own anti-virus products. This is to enable them to keep ahead of the scum that create them. If there were no solutions and the email is as bad as they say it is then the solution will be within 30 minutes of the virus being created never mind until you got the email.
The email has already gone to over 50 people
It will be old news if you find that the email has already gone round the world to finally arrive into your inbox. These addresses don't make the email any more valid but less so. These email addresses are often automatically generated when the mail was originally created and the rest could well be others who have fallen for the email. (Read email harvesting for the dangers of these mails).
Dangers of hoax/spam emails
False Authority Syndrome
This can be very dangerous and complex issue. If you want to read up on this please visit this site for a good example and explanation. It is a few pages long but reads ok.

- In brief - Most people who claim to speak with authority about computer viruses have little or no genuine expertise. The person feels competent to discuss viruses because of his job title, or because of his expertise in another computer field, or simply because he knows how to use a computer.
Email Harvesting
Have you ever found yourself on a spamming mailing list? Eventually you will be. One reason for this is Email Harvesting. This is made incredibly easy by the people who send these chain emails out and continue them. The emails that have just been forwarded to all of their address book and then forwarded on again will contain references to all of them email addresses. If that mail got forwarded on to somebody genuinely infected by a virus that steals email addresses not only form their address book but from the mails they read too. You have no control over other people reading a mail you sent to a friend. You have no control over somebody elseâ€™s inboxes and you have no control if a virus has stripped the email of all addresses and sends the results back to a mailing list. (One solution would be to always clear out email addresses and tidy up the email before sending. You can also use the BCC (blind carbon copy) function so you don't put all your friends at risk too).
Useful links to check when you receive a suspected hoax.

Please let me know if I have missed anything out and I will gladly include, change or delete any information here.

If the email is sent to Dave Notts and has the word 'gorgeous' in any part of the body/subject line then you KNOW its a fake.
Happy emailing,
Matt

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