Most Internet e-mail users will eventually receive an e-mail message
that they feel compelled to forward to everyone they know.  These
messages usually contain a warning about a virus, a deal that seems too
good to pass up on, or a request for forwarding to support a charitable
cause.

Disappointingly, _most_ of these are hoaxes.  Most users that have been
on the 'Net for a while get the idea and stop forwarding these, but
even savvy users sometimes get sucked in.  My ISP sent a bogus virus
warning just this morning.  I decided that I wanted to offer him a
procedure to verify which were real and which were bogus.  I discovered
a web site at the University of Michigan that is quite useful:

    http://www.umich.edu/~virus-busters/

This page is good reading.  It provides some advice, a list of common
Internet hoaxes, and has some useful pointers to other resources on
the 'Net.

This page does mention a particular brand of anti-Virus software.
There are other good ones.  The important thing is to keep your anti-
virus software up to date.  Most anti-virus software vendors let you
update your software via the Internet.


So..., please take some time to double-check the validity of a warning
message before forwarding it.  If it's real, it will be mentioned
promptly on one or more of the following Web pages:

  McAfee:
    http://vil.mcafee.com/villib/alpha.asp
  Symantec:
     http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/index.html
  Network Associates:
     http://www.avertlabs.com/public/datafiles/valerts/
  Microsoft:
     http://www.microsoft.com/security/bulletins/current.asp
  CERT:
     http://www.cert.org/advisories/

Verifying that a message you are about to forward is not a hoax can
be tedious, but you can help break the cycle of forwarding of hoaxes.
As long as people continue to forward these without doing some homework,
the ** _messages_ are the virus **, because they are clogging the 'Net
and filling up computer disks all over the world !

Jody Kravitz