Computer hoaxes virus

J aka Bagle. Novarg aka MyDoom. Sysbug aka James. Microsoft Patch. Got You. F W Blaster MSBlaster. Mimail message.

Lovgate W Lovgate mm. Christmas tree app. Sobig W Lirva W Opening a greeting card from FriendGreetings. Bugbear W Bugbear mm. EXE Bear Virus. Klez-H Allhallowmas.

Visit the New Facebook. Life is Beautiful. MyLife W An Internet Flower for You. Hackers List. Gigger JS. Reeezak Christmas. Goner gone. WTC Survivor. Most hoaxes are quite sensationalist: aiming to shock the recipient and are often easily spotted by the fact that they often make impossible claims about the effects of the virus, such as causing fires or making computers explode ; or other serious consequences, such as deleting everything the user has on the computer.

They sometimes include fake warnings from IT companies or fake news stories, supposedly published by genuine news organizations. These aim to give credibility to the hoax. As with scareware , these warnings tend to use alarmist language, emphasizing the urgent nature of the threat and calling on users to inform others as soon as possible. Hoaxes are usually inoffensive in themselves, and the damage caused is the time wasted by those who don't realize that it is a hoax, and forward the message to contacts.

Sometimes, however, there have been hoaxes that aim to manipulate users by making them believe that essential system files are really viruses, and telling them to delete them, causing permanent damage to the system.

Moreover, there can be additional damage caused by the loss of productivity, loss of credibility, saturating of local networks, etc. Some analysts believe that hoaxes and other chain messages are really a computer worm which propagates using social engineering, exploiting ignorance and panic, and users' neglect to check the veracity of information before passing it on.

It is also important to distinguish hoaxes from pranks; the latter being inoffensive programs that take unwanted or annoying actions on computers, such as randomly moving the mouse pointer, or turning the screen upside down, etc.

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