10 Internet threats your users should ignore

Overview You've got your hands full dealing with real security threats--you don't need your users falling for fake ones. Share this list to help them learn to recognize the various scams and hoaxes making the rounds.

Even your most savvy users can get fooled into thinking a phony virus warning is real, perpetuating the hoax by forwarding it to other users. In fact, as IT pro Deb Shinder points out, sometimes media outlets get fooled, too, and report the details of a scam as though it were a genuine concern.

Pass this list along to your users to help them wise up when it comes to fake virus warnings and other Internet hoaxes. They'll learn to spot popular scams such as:

• Messages that describe a dangerous virus and tell them to delete certain files to get rid of it.


• Meaningless technical-sounding jargon, such as the variant of the Good Times hoax claiming it destroys the computer's processor by setting it to 'an nth complexity infinite loop.'


• Claims that are either too dire (the Death Ray causes home computers to 'explode in a hellish blast of glass fragments and flames') or too good (Miller Brewing is giving away free beer) to be true

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