Why do people do this? 3

[TheVampire]

I recently got yet another virus warning hoax e-mail. You've probably seen them. The ones that claim that a virus is on your PC, that anti-virus programs can't see it, and instructions on how to delete the supposed virus file, etc, BS, BS, etc.

Why do people forward these things? The recent one I got was from a person I know is not a dim bulb by any means. Do they think that because it's easy to forward the mail to everybody in their bloody address book ( using CC instead of BCC, no less ), that they just go ahead and do it without really thinking about it?

A couple of months ago, it was one of the other employees in our company that did this. I wrote her back and told her that "You should know better than this". She said she found my "attitude to be disturbing". I think she'd find a lot of people attitudes being disturbed if they deleted a critical system file from their machine and their PC died...

Robert

 

[edfair]

Because they want to help. That is part of the culture.

One cure I use is to reply to all with the explanation that xx fell for a hoax and insert a link to one of the hoax sites. May not cure them the first time.

Ed Fair
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[SemperFiDownUnda]

my favorite is the virus that puts your machine into "an infinate binary loop".

Sounds really bad to those that don't realise thats what your computer is.....well until we get quantumn computers that is then you'll see hoax emails about a virus that puts your machine into a "an infinate qubit loops that transcends the multiverse"

 

[cjh1]

Robert,

I must admit that I find this annoying too. As you rightly point out, the people who forward these messages on are normally quite bright, and if they received the same thing via snail mail they would probably throw it straight in the bin. Recently a manager in my organisation forwarded an email which claimed that if she sent it to 5 people British Airways would give her a free flight to Europe and if she sent it to 10 people she would get a free flight to the USA! These hoaxes play on peoples greed, their desire to do the right thing and most of all thier general ingnorace of how PCs and email work.

I usually reply to these pointing out the fact that they are hoaxes with a link to the relevant information on the Web. It usually panics them as the normal reply I get is "Have I damaged my PC by sending\lookng at this email". It is tempting to say Yes but I am not that cruel.

Caroline

 

[flapeyre]

http://www.snopes.com

is a good place to disprove such hoaxes.


"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the Earth with your eyes turned skyward, for here you have been, and there you will always long to return."

--Leonardo da Vinci

 

[SteveTheGeek]

Yes, the virus hoax plays upon people's good intentions.
<rant>
The thing that most irritates me is that they frequently do not send out a correction once I've (very politely and pleasantly, IMHO) explained everything to them including the fact that 99% of these warnings are hoaxes and feel free to run it by me and I'll tell you for sure either way before you send it out to everyone. I find that they stop sending ME future warnings, but continue sending them to others! &quot;Gee, I don't want to feel stupid, so I'll continue doing the dumb thing but try and keep someone from correcting me.&quot;
</rant> *sigh*
-Steve

 

[PCLine]

SteveTheGeek
I think you are talking about the same people who &quot;don't trust&quot; <insight>can't configure</insight> filters on their e-mails.

So they rely on visual verification of the e-mail contents, Just incase it is something important.

All the best.

We must all contend at one time or another with Chicken Licken incarnate.

 

[Kjonnnn]

Something for our gullible friends.

http://www.bordergatewayprotocol.net/~jon/humor/web_animations/may02-smilepop-soapbox4.swf

 

[TheVampire]

I've tried pointing out these transgressions before. usually it just makes the person upset that I pointed out that they fell for a hoax.

Kjonnnn: Thanks, I needed that.

PCLine: &quot;Chicken Licken&quot; ?!?!?!? You mean &quot;Chicken Little&quot; don't you? ( thinking about lunch already, are we? )

Robert

 

[PCLine]

'twas always &quot;chicken licken&quot; when I was a lad. Perhaps it has different connotations these days.

I have just had a look at the &quot;Chicken Little&quot; version ~ I must say I am unimpressed.

Get yer beady's round this version;

http://www.ongoing-tales.com/SERIALS/oldtime/FAIRYTALES/chicklicken.html

<aside>Goosey Poosey, how much more literature is going to be ruined...</aside>

;-)

All the best.

 

[lionelhill]

The ones I find sick are the ones that say someone is dying of a hideous disease (usually they are a poverty-stricken child) and microsoft/AOL/whoever will pay 5 cents for every time you forward the e-mail.

The ones I find odd are the ones that tell you you'll get some special treat if you send it on... I mean, it didn't take me more than about ten to realise that you never get anything. But there again, I probably am the dimmest lightbulb.

 

[MichealC4]

lionelhill: I agree with you 110%. Those are just sick. I get forwarded those types of messages every once in a while saying they can track you. But they have no attachment for you to download (*cough*virus alert*cough*) ... Go figure. Though, those types of messages seemed to have died down. At least on my part of the universe.

I am Comptia A+ Certified

 

[ANFPS26]

PCLine, I learned something. I had never heard of Chicken &quot;Licken&quot; before. It was Chicken &quot;Little&quot; in the USA when I was growing up. I like your version better.

Jim

 

[aixmurderer]

Edfair is quite right here, people want to be helpful, and also seem to be not ignorant. The unfortunate fact is that most of these people are only end users, so the depth of knowledge is not at our level. It's often the case of a little knowledge being more dangerous than no knowledge at all.

They quite often cannot distinguish between BS and the real thing, and probably would not even know where to start looking for information to prove the contrary.

The typical user at my workplace don't even know how to start the AV scanner, nevermind on how to use MS Update.

But in the end I much rather prefer them sending me hoax emails (I can help them right) than having to fix a virus attack because they said nothing. It is annoying, but in this case crying wolf may just one day save me a lot of work and hassles if the real thing hits us.

IBM Certified Confused - MQSeries
IBM Certified Flabbergasted - AIX 5 pSeries System Administration
MS Certified Windblows Rebooter

 

[chiph]

OK, I admit that I fell for one of the classic urban legends -- the one about the traveller who woke up in the bathtub minus a kidney.

But that was in 1995.

Since then I've become more of a skeptic, and don't trust any of those sorts of emails.

Now if I can only train my mom....

Chip H.

 

[EdwardMartinIII]

Our employer blocks access to

http://www.snopes.com,

as well Cecil Adams column, The Straight Dope.

&quot;How can ignorance be fought in this environment?!&quot; he wails in the void...

Cheers,


Edward

&quot;Cut a hole in the door. Hang a flap. Criminy, why didn't I think of this earlier?!&quot; -- inventor of the cat door

 

[jrbarnett]

Edward
If you can't get to that site, another good one on this subject is

http://www.vmyths.com.

John

 

[VBmim]

Hello

In my company, we tell the users that they HAVE to send us all these (false) warning mails to us (me and my boss) and that we would take further responsabilities of spreading the message if necessary... All our 50 users are very happy with this (but maybe I'm lucky ). When I recieve one of these hoax-mails, I do my research and send them a mail back that they don't have to worry about a thing, together with a hoax-link (usualy symantec).

About the 'forward this and we get xxx cents'-mails: They are indeed very sick. I am surprised that so many people fall for that... But I think that those people often think &quot;Hmm, I don't think they'll get these xxx cents, but I'll forward it just for sure&quot;. At the moment, we don't get flooded with that kind of emails, so I just let it pass...

We did have a panic because of the Bonsai Kitten mail (you know, these little cat's grown in pots and all)... The user in question was very releaved when I told her it was just a fake...

Greetz

Mim

 

[lionelhill]

The latest one I'm getting is a veritable flood of automated messages from &quot;system administrators&quot; I've never heard of telling me I've sent them a virus.
No body ever checks if the virus concerned spoofs the &quot;from&quot; field (i.e. highly likely &quot;sender&quot; never sent it).
Now I call that alarmist spam, myself...

 

[SteveTheGeek]

Lionelhill,
Are those automated messages? At least two mail server antivirus software packages do an automatic notification-to-sender email by default, which is also a bad idea when viruses so frequently spoof the from field.
-Steve