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Hoax warnings

This page is considered the industry standard information source for new virus hoaxes and false alerts. Bookmark now.

Hoax warnings are typically scare alerts started by malicious people - and passed on by innocent users who think they are helping the community by spreading the warning.

Do not forward hoax messages. We've seen cases where e-mail systems have collapsed after dozens of users forwarded a false alert to everybody in the company. Corporate users can get rid of the hoax problem by simply setting a strict company guideline: End users must not forward virus alarms. Ever. It's not the job of an end user anyway. If such message is received, end users could forward it to the IT department but not to anyone else.

Do note that we generally add only virus-related hoaxes to this list. We can not evaluate whether non-computer related folklore stories are urban legends or true stories. We're not going to add them to this list either. Check http://www.urbanlegends.com/ for general urban legends.

List of known hoaxes:

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