Email hoaxes and scams pose a legitimate threat

Sometimes, what makes a good joke, scam or hoax, is its’ tinge of plausibility. If a bit of truth can be blended with enough falsehood to exploit someone’s lack of knowledge and base instincts, then you have a good hoax. This is essentially the same formula for many of the digital jokes, scams, and hoaxes that litter email accounts around the world. Of these email annoyances, frauds and hoaxes are the most serious.
The overwhelming majority of email scams are connected with relieving you of your money in some form or fashion. The last big email scam dealt with an email that was allegedly from an African who was in need of assistance transferring his vast fortune out of his nation. In return for your assistance, you would be generously compensated financially. The money would be transferred into your account and you could keep either take the interest that the money accrued or you could receive a daily percentage of the sum for your assistance. You are only required to provide your bank information so the funds can be transferred. Now, by just reading this you may be thinking how in the world could any sane person fall victim to this obvious scam. Well, you would be surprised how many people follow their base instincts and end up lighter in the bank account for their efforts. The less elaborate scams are your garden variety get rich quick schemes. A good rule of thumb to avoid email scams is that if it sounds to good to be true then it probably is a scam.
Email hoaxes on the other hand can be unpredictable. The thing about email hoaxes is that sometimes they spread by word of mouth as well as by email. There is an email hoax that tells people to delete the file called jdbmgr.exe. It has a bear as its’ icon and is referred to as the Bugbear virus. In actuality, it is not a virus but the java debugger manger. This file is for developing java applications on Windows and can be found on Windows 95 through XP. The unpredictability arises from the trend of actual virus accompanying the known hoax virus email. I realize that this may sound a bit repetitious, but a not opening email from unknown persons is the first line of defense. The second line of defense is to verify the virus warnings even from people that you know and trust. This can be done by going to sites like Symantec.com and looking in the security response link. This link will provide information on credible viruses and known hoaxes. You should be able to get similar information from the other major anti-virus software providers websites. The last line of defense is having anti-virus software installed on your computer. If you currently have anti-virus software, check the software makers website for updates often. I hope that this will keep you and your computer from being the victim of a digital hoax.