http://ciac.llnl.gov/ciac/CIACHoaxes.html
This public service web site is there so that you can check to see if these are real
or just hoaxes. As you will see if you visit that site, Join the Crew is a
hoax.
John
Title: CIAC Internet Hoaxes
Internet Hoaxes
Please Note:
This web site is provided as a public service; however, CIAC does not have the
resources to investigate and/or confirm every hoax currently circulating the Internet.
CIAC appreciates input on questionable hoaxes, but we are not able to respond back to
each e-mail message. You can help eliminate "junk mail" by educating the public on
how to identify a new hoax warning, how to identify a
valid warning and what to do if you think a message is a hoax.
Hoaxes described on this page: PKZ300,
Irina, Good Times,
Good Times Spoof,
Deeyenda, Ghost
PENPAL GREETINGS!, Make Money Fast,
NaughtyRobot, AOL4FREE,
Join the Crew, Death Ray,
AOL V4.0 Cookie, A.I.D.S. Hoax,
Internet Cleanup Day,
Bill Gates Hoax,
WIN A HOLIDAY,
AOL Riot June 1, 1998,
E-mail or get a Virus,
Bud Frogs Screen Saver,
Disney Giveaway Hoax,
Internet Access Charge
Last modified: Monday, 11-Jan-99 15:42:40 PST
You are the 1829147th visitor to this page.
For information on Internet Chain Letters, check the New CIAC web page
located at http://ciac.llnl.gov/ciac/CIACChainLetters.html
The Internet is constantly being flooded with information about computer
viruses and Trojans. However, interspersed among real virus notices are
computer virus hoaxes. While these hoaxes do not infect systems, they are
still time consuming and costly to handle. At CIAC, we find that we are
spending much more time de-bunking hoaxes than handling real virus incidents.
This page describes only a small number of the hoax warnings that are found on the Internet today.
We will address some of
the history of hoaxes on the Internet.
Users are requested to please not spread
unconfirmed warnings about viruses and Trojans. If you receive an unvalidated
warning, don't pass it to all your friends, pass it to your computer security
manager to validate first. Validated warnings from the incident response teams
and antivirus vendors have valid return addresses and are usually PGP signed
with the organization's key.
PKZ300 Warning
The PKZ300 Trojan is a real Trojan program, but the initial warning about it
was released over a year ago. For information pertaining to PKZ300 Trojan
reference
CIAC Notes issue 95-10, at http://ciac.llnl.gov/ciac/notes/Notes10.shtml
that was released in June of 1995.
The warning itself, on the other hand, is gaining urban legend status. There
has been an extremely limited number of sightings of this Trojan and those
appeared over a year ago. Even though the Trojan warning is real, the repeated
circulation of the warning is a nuisance. Individuals who need the current
release of PKZIP should visit the PKWare web page at http://www.pkware.com.
CIAC recommends that you DO NOT recirculate the warning about this particular
Trojan.
The following is the true warning about PKZ300 from the PKWare web site:
!!! PKZIP Trojan Horse Version - (Originally Posted May 1995) !!!
It has come to the attention of PKWARE that a fake version of PKZIP is being
distributed as PKZ300B.ZIP or PKZ300.ZIP. It is not an offical version from
PKWARE and it will attempt to erase your hard drive if run. It attempts to
perform a deletion of all the directories of your current drive. If you have
any information as to the creators of this trojan horse, PKWARE would be
extremely interested to hear from you. If you have any other questions about
this fake version, please e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Irina Virus Hoax
The Irina virus warnings are a hoax. The former head of an electronic
publishing company circulated the warning to create publicity for a new
interactive book by the same name. The publishing company has apologized for
the publicity stunt that backfired and panicked Internet users worldwide. The
original warning claimed to be from a Professor Edward Pridedaux of the
College of Slavic Studies in London; there is no such person or college.
However, London's School of Slavonic and East European Studies has been
inundated with calls. This poorly thought-out publicity stunt was highly
irresponsible. For more information pertaining to this hoax, reference the
UK Daily Telegraph at http://www.telegraph.co.uk. The original hoax message is as follows:
FYI
There is a computer virus that is being sent across the Internet.
If you receive an e-mail message with the subject line Irina, DONOT
read the message. DELETE it immediately.
Some miscreant is sending people files under the title Irina. If
you receive this mail or file, do not download it. It has a virus
that rewrites your hard drive, obliterating anything on it. Please be
careful and forward this mail to anyone you care about.
(
