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| >>>> About Chain Letters <<<< A chain letter is e-mail forwarded to multiple parties. Even a simple "pass this along to the ones you love" letter is a chain letter. "Pass the word that Microsoft is giving away computers" is another chain letter, but of the hoax variety. What's wrong with sending those warm and fuzzy sentimental thoughts? Let's start with space. Every e-mail takes up space to transmit, space to store, and potentially floods (if it's particularly juicy stuff) an e-mail server's capacity to route real mail. Next, we have the distribution list. All of those names you see in the "To:" and "Cc:" blocks are potential victims of more e-mail attacks. We suggest always using "Bcc" (blind copy) whenever your list of recipients is greater than two or three of your closest buds. If you receive a chain letter e-mail, you have a wonderful and maybe long list of people to whom you can send spam. If even one person on the list is unscrupulous, spam results. After that, we have hoaxes. These hoaxes are simply credible sounding lies that serve to motivate the unsuspecting to send chain letters. Suspect any story relating to money, free anything, health, celebrities and sexuality to be bogus. Check the validity out at http://www.snopes.com or http://www.urbanlegends.com . Symantec and McAfee also have a section on viruses and hoaxes. Download nothing if you don't know what it is, even from a friend who is mentioned in the body of the e-mail. For example, the SirCam (and variants) virus crates an e-mail from your friend with the SirCam virus attached. In the body of the e-mail it says some babble in poorly formed English seeking your opinion and no more. We thought the e-mail sounded a little fishy because there was no remark or salutation. No "Hi Wes," no "regards, see ya, cheers" or anything that sounded like one of our cyber-uds really sending something. We followed this with a quick search of SirCam and found that it was a virus. We called the sender and he said, "Nope, we did not send you any mail at all that we know of. We deleted the mail, let Symantec do its scrubbing searching and destroying action, and that was the end of that. Billing and account information is a very desirable thing to have. Since most ISPs get their fees via credit card, would-be thieves send you an e-mail telling you that the card needs to be reactivated. They ask for the number in the reply. You're giving away the store if you reply. Never put your password in an e-mail reply. Look for the telltale clues in the return address. We got some mail from tech@aolcom.com in which the sender asked for our password. AOL has a special address to alert it of such matters, as do most major services. In AOL's case it's tosemail for spam, and tosemail1 for attachments. Unsolicited bills are a new scam. The thief says something to the effect that your e-mail is no longer free, here's your bill. Some folks simply pay! Yes, we are telling you to be a little paranoid. Don't become a victim. By Wes Stewart (UPI) Copyright 2001 by United Press International and Gizmorama. All rights reserved. |
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