Just a quick look through your weekly emails and the chances are you will see some sort of hoax, scam, fraud attempt or spam. The online hoax can be a real
pain, it often causes undue alarm, and takes up big chunks of the internets capacity as worried users unwittingly pass the hoax out to their friends and
relatives. So next time you come to forward on one of these types of email, stop for a moment and think, how to check out a hoax before i make the mistake of
passing it on:
1. Look at the email carefully, are they trying to get money or private/security information from you, if the answer is yes, this maywell be a hoax or scam.
2. Use the search engines, they are a fast way to check out out a hoax, simply type in the title or some other fairly unqiue line of text and you may well
find the search engine will return enough results to confirm you have found hoax.
3. You can search on news sites as they often report scams and hoaxes, you can also visit sites like pandasoftware.com and symantec.com, they not only
provide details of current hoaxes but also offer further tips and advice on how to check out a hoax.
4. Apply your own commonsense, the human brain offers its own methods of how to check out a hoax, do you know the source of the email? Do you beleive what it
says? Would you feel comfortable forwarding the email on to friends and family? If you have any concerns at all use one of the other methods detailed in this
guide to confirm your suspicions.
5. Use one of the website that offer a how to check out hoax service, sites like hoax-slayer.com
|
Featured guides RSS Feed