1.4 What is hoax/ chain letter

A hoax is an attempt to deceive, to make the public believe into a strange idea, generally involving a material object which should conduct to illicit financial or material gain, or appealing to religious beliefs and charity, or just as a practical joke.
Many hoaxes aim to ridicule and satirize, mocking at the public's credulity. They have been using the media since their early times, but there is no match for the IT environment and the limitless possibilities it offers them to spread.

A. Virus hoax:

A virus hoax usually consists of an email message warning recipients about a new and terribly destructive virus. It ends by suggesting that the reader should warn his or her friends and colleagues, perhaps by simply forwarding the original message to everyone in their address book. The result is a rapidly growing proliferation of pointless emails that can increase to such an extent that they overload systems.

The hoax may deceive the user into deleting some files on the system, under the false pretence of eliminating the virus, thus causing real damage to the user. Sometimes it happens that a hoax inspires the coming up of a real virus threat.

B. Electronic chain letters:

Chain letters are email messages of harassing nature that come in many forms. They contain an incredible or emotional message (or even a pointless text), asking you to send the letter on to as many people as possible, after performing some prerequisite steps (sending money, making a wish, saying a prayer...) and further more, warning you of disastrous consequences, if you don't do what the letter asks.

They are annoying, as the message gets to be composed of countless headers from forwarded messages. You should NOT reply or forward the chain letter! It makes people loose time and eventually, money.

Some types of electronic chain letters:

• Good luck chain letter- it promises good luck to those who continue the chain (it is an old type of chain letter, dating a long time back and taking the advantage of its electronic form since the beginning of computer age);
• A pyramid scheme- it is a fraudulent system for gaining money, formed out of a chain of people recruited to give money and to enlist new members;
• Charity hoaxes;
• Prayer requests;
• Practical jokes;
• Political hoaxes;
• Urban legends;
• Useless Petitions;
• Anti-chain letters.

Virus Science