At 11:16 -0800 on 3/15/1999, KARLA KT SHAHAN mailed Fw: Fwd: New Tax on Internet: The message you forwarded is a hoax, one of the oldest on the Internet. There is no such bill. >>>>> Subject: Charge for using Internet >>>>> >>>>> Guess we realized the government would sooner or later find a way to >>>>> tax us for using the Internet. Congress will be voting in less than >>a >>>>> week. >>>>> >>>>> CNN stated that the Government would decide >>>>> to allow >>>>> or not allow a charge to your phone bill equal to the tax on a Long >>Distance call >>>>EACH >>>>> time you access the Internet. >>>>> Folks, from time to time you get one of those messages urging you to "tell all your friends immediately before the [insert name here] virus erases their hard drive, sterilizes their children, and defrosts their freezer". From time to time you get a message saying that Little Orphan Annie is going to have a great blessing bestowed on her if only you would e-mail ten thousand friends with a request. Almost always, these messages are a fraud, designed to snarl up the Internet with a huge volume of messages. Here is a rather full list of Internet resources to help you sort truth from hoax, which I urge you to look over every time you get one of those messages -- BEFORE you tell everyone immediately. ------ "E-mail Virus alerts & other chain letters:" http://ciac.llnl.gov/ciac/CIACHoaxes.html http://ciac.llnl.gov/ciac/CIACChainLetters.html http://www.cnet.com/Content/Reports/Trends/Nethoaxes/index.html http://www.mit.edu/people/dryfoo/Info/shergold.html http://www.datafellows.com/news/hoax.htm http://www.cc.org/publications/ca/1196/hoax.html http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/hoax.html http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/vinfodb.html http://kumite.com/myths/ http://www.av.ibm.com/BreakingNews/HypeAlert/ http://www.av.ibm.com/BreakingNews/VirusAlert/ http://vil.mcafee.com/villib/results.asp?qu=hoax* http://www.mcafee.com/site_search/site_search.asp http://www.urbanlegends.com http://urbanlegends.miningco.com/ http://www.geocities.com/Athens/1401/urbanlegends.html http://www.xnet.com/~warinner/ http://www.scambusters.org/ http://kumite.com/myths/ http://www.snopes.com http://www.snopes.com/spoons/faxlore/congress.htm http://snopes.simplenet.com/spoons/faxlore/missngkd.htm http://snopes.simplenet.com/spoons/legends/fcc.htm http://netsquirrel.com/combatkit/ http://www.fcc.gov/mmb/enf/forms/rm-2493.html netsquirrel.com tells us that amazon.com has had 3,000,000 customers in a year, none of whom have been victims of credit card fraud. He also suggests that if you get an e-mail with more than a page of e-mail addresses, it is more than likely a hoax. Specifically for the "Win a Holiday" Hoax: http://www.stiller.com/holiday.htm http://www.av.ibm.com/BreakingNews/HypeAlert/Holiday/ http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/data/win.a.holiday.html AOL has an entire section on this hoax and others similar to it. Go to Keyword: "virus." Your own Internet service providers may have info, as well. If you are concerned about alerts of any kind from Microsoft, check their website or sign up for their free newsletter, and be the first to know: http://www.microsoft.com/ "E-mail Virus" and Other Kinds of Hoaxes: http://www.quality.org/html/important.html A light-hearted treatment of hoaxes: http://www.mirabilis.com/virus.html Some good material on evaluating sources: * Evaluating Internet Research Sources at http://www.sccu.edu/faculty/R_Harris/evalu8it.htm * Evaluation of Information Sources at http://www.vuw.ac.nz/~agsmith/evaln/evaln.htm * Bibliography on Evaluating Internet Resources at http://refserver.lib.vt.edu/libinst/critTHINK.HTM It *is* possible to design responsible alerts for people to circulate on the Internet. Here is a how-to that draws positive conclusions from long experience with badly designed alerts: * Designing Effective Action Alerts for the Internet at http://weber.ucsd.edu/~pagre/alerts.html Please check with reliable hoax-busters before forwarding material such as a "virus" e-mail message, to *anyone,* please. Now that you know, you needn't ever again fall victim or victimize others in spreading groundless fears or "urban legends." It's *so easy to check.* Spread the good word. Netiquette & E-mail usage for beginners: http://www.webfoot.com/advice/email.top.html Netiquette Guidelines for & beyond beginners (RFC 1855; FYI 28) <ftp://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc1855.txt> <ftp://venera.isi.edu/in-notes/fyi/fyi28.txt> This document provides a minimum set of guidelines for Network Etiquette (Netiquette) which organizations may take and adapt for their own use. As such, it is deliberately written in a bulleted format to make adaptation easier and to make any particular item easy (or easier) to find. It also functions as a minimum set of guidelines for individuals, both users and administrators. This memo is the product of the Responsible Use of the Network (RUN*1) Working Group of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF*2). Ethics and the Internet (RFC 1087) <ftp://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc1087.txt> This memo is a statement of policy by the Internet Architectures Board (IAB*3) at the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF*2) concerning the proper use of the resources of the Internet. Guidelines for Conduct on and Use of Internet <http://www.isoc.org/proceedings/conduct/cerf-Aug-draft.html> Draft document written and maintained by Vint Cerf, President of Internet Society (ISOC*4). The Net: User guidelines and Netiquette <http://www.fau.edu/netiquette/net/index.html> The guidelines by Ms Arlene H. Rinardy of Florida Atlantic University (FAU*5). Netiquette <http://www.albion.com/netiquette/book/index.html> The WWW version of the book "Netiquette" by Virginia Shea, published by Albion Books*6. Copyright: http://www.nolo.com/nn197.html http://fairuse.stanford.edu/ Flaming: http://www.windweaver.com/email.htm SPAM: http://com.primenet.com/spamking/ http://www.cauce.org/ Privacy on-line: http://165.123.33.33/yr1997/dec/prof_971208.html http://www.nasw.org/privacy.htm Why 30 hyphens or a line of asterisks is a no-no in list messages (they are part of the digest format and having them in messages, messes things up): http://www.alternic.net/rfcs/1100/rfc1153.txt.html Thank you for listening. Ted ================================================= mailto:egburton@valint.net "We may not get everything right, but at least we knew the century was going to end. Macintosh was designed to work perfectly with dates all the way up to the year 29,940. But have no fear. We're already hard at work on the Y30K problem." - Apple Adv.