Hoax Emails
If your inbox looks anything like mine then every day the Email Fairy (yes, they exist) brings you important correspondence from your clients, friends and family. Unfortunately, the little guy also brings you all kinds of junk email, viruses and dire warnings about viruses. This document is to address this last type of email: virus warnings. Unless they are received directly from a trusted antivirus source, warnings about viruses are always bogus--hoaxes.

Definition of a Hoax
Although hoax email may be sent by an infected computer, the hoax email itself does not contain a virus! Instead, hoax emails contain bogus warnings and usually ask you to "tell everyone you know". Worse, they instruct you to delete some file or make some change to your computer system. Because hoax emails do not contain viruses they always walk right past your firewall or any antivirus software you are using. Therefore, it is up to you, your IT staff and/or your employees to make informed, intelligent decisions when dealing with this type of email.

Remember
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LEGITIMATE antivirus and security warnings will NEVER be emailed to you. The exception is if you have subscribed to a mailing list from a trusted authority such as Norton, McAffee or Microsoft. Your IT department may also have a system for sending out warnings. In fact, no matter who the apparent source is, I recommend that you ask your computer professional to review the email's authenticity before you take any action.

Questions
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It is OK to ask questions--it is encouraged. If you receive a warning from any other source and have any questions or concerns you should contact your IT department or give us a call. Do not take action on the email and do not forward the warning to friends or clients.