So many of the virus warning, missing child, and even call for prayer emails you receive are false alarms or no longer relevant (many have been circulating for many years now, and some were going around via the US Postal Service before home computers and the internet even existed!), but they do real damage in filling up thousands of inboxes and sucking up internet bandwidth as well-intentioned people forward the bogus warning/story/appeal for help to all their email contacts. If you receive an email warning of any kind, a missing child bulletin, or ANY email urging you to "send it to everyone in your address book,"
1 - THINK about what it tells you;
2 - CONSIDER any unsupported claims to authority it makes;
3 - NOTE REFERENCES to "yesterday" or "last week" or "recently" with no dates to tell you when that was;
4 - and if you STILL are not SURE it is real, check it out through one or more of the following web sites before you add to internet congestion by forwarding what probably is just another bogus warning to the four winds.
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The AFU & Urban Legends Archive
Computer Virus Myths Homepage
CAIC Security Web Site (Dept of Energy)
McAfee Virus Hoax site
Snopes
Symantec Virus Research Center
Truth or Fiction
