Internet Hoaxes

	From time to time there e-mails are floating around, warning you about a potential e-mail virus or tell you to get great software from a special address. May people believe in these hoaxes, because they do not know about them or do not have the ability to identify a hoax, because they do not have the special knowledge. In this chapter we are describing the three most encountered hoaxes.
	E-Mail Viruses Many of our visitors have forwared e-mail virus warnings to us and have asked us if they are true or not. Time for us to post an article about this. If you receive an e-mail about a virus in an e-mail, that gets active as soon as you read the e-mail, do not believe this. Just reply to the sender (who might not know, that this is impossible) and tell him or direct him to our site. Let us state, that it is not possible to get a virus, that deletes files or erases an entire harddisk just from reading e-mail. This can not happen. A virus is a rather small executable (!!!) file, that does the damage. When you read an e-mail, even an e-mail that has a virus attached, the virus can do no harm to your system. This can only happen, if there is a file attached, which is executed by you or your e-mail programm automatically, when you open the mail. The most popular Internet e-mail virus hoaxes have one of the following subject lines / bodies: Goodtime virus Irina Deeyenda Penpal Greetings If you receive a warning e-mail, that warns you about any of the above e-mail, do not send them to your friends, but reply to the sender telling him the truth and delete the message. So remember, you can't get a virus by reading a mail, but you can get a virus by executing a file that is attached to an e-mail. More Information about these so called e-mail virus warning can be found at the following address: Internet Mail Hoaxes Top
	Postcards for sick/dying children Another hoax that is floating around is an e-mail, that asks you to send a child named either Craig Shergold, Jessiaca Mydek or Anthony Parkin lots of postcards, because he/she is serious ill or dying. This hoax originates from a real incident, when a serious sick child asked for a lots of postcards. But this was years ago. The child is now well again and doesn't need any postcards anymore. Since that time, a lot of hoaxes are floating around asking you to send postcards to this and that address. They are hoaxes. These children do not exist and can do a lot of damage to the institutions you're sending them to. However, we not want to deny, that there is a very small possiblity that such a child really does exist, but it is very small. If you receive an e-mail with one of the names above, it is a hoax. For any other name, try to contact the sender or institution you should send the postcards to to verify the request. Top
	Great software from 127.0.0.1 Another hoax that has been floating around in newsgroups and is often sent to people directly is an e-mail message, that tells you that you can find great (pirated) software or sex pictures under the address 127.0.0.1. The IP address 127.0.0.1 is a special reserved address, that always represents your own computer, yes, we mean the computer you are working on. If you connect to the 127.0.0.1 address you either won't get a connection - why shall not be discussed here - or you will find very familiar stuff, because you are on your own harddisk. Let us note, that noone else can connect to your computer using 127.0.0.1 - except you yourself. If any other user connects to 127.0.0.1, then he will get his own harddisk.

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