Busting e-mail hoaxes

2003-07-07 12:41

Germany - Many try to arouse sympathies, while others promise quick riches. Whatever the ploy, the fact is that e-mail hoaxes can spread like wildfire using the power of the internet.

Many fabrications sent by e-mail sound believable, others completely absurd, while others are even dangerous.

Many surfers unwittingly forward the fakes on to friends, family, and acquaintances. Tracking down the original authors is very difficult, however, because even the wiliest of detectives don't have many clues to work with.

The principle behind a chain letter is simple: the author sends off an e-mail with a fake message and calls upon the recipient to send it to as many people as possible.

If at least one recipient actually does so, then the message will probably continue to pass on into the mailboxes of the wider internet community.

"There are various types of chain letters," says Heiko Rittelmeier, who runs a website dedicated to stamping out chain letters. Some warn of non-existent internet viruses, ask for personal data, or predict bad luck in the event that the letter is not forwarded on.

Heart-stirring stories

Other letters take advantage of human emotions. "When there are a lot of reports on cancer in the media, we usually see lots of chain letters with heart-stirring stories about cancer patients," says Rittelmeier.

Very often there isn't a single real person or true story behind them at all.

So-called pyramid schemes, however, revolve around money. Such letters encourage the recipient to forward a certain sum to another person within the system. In return, such a letter promises, other participants will send back an even larger sum at a later date.

"These systems are difficult to tackle legally," says Juergen Schroeder, a representative from a consumer agency in Germany.

Participation can only be proven if monetary contributions are paid to a central account. This is rarely the case, since internet chain letters are often by their nature decentralised.

Very often it is innocent people who come into trouble when their names are falsely given as the sender of a chain mail letter.

According to a report from the University of Ulm, Germany, it is a particularly beloved ruse to falsely append another person's name as the sender. Such victims can face months of angry letters or worse as a result.

There is little protection against chain letters, since they are generally sent by friends or acquaintances. "Only information can help," Schroeder says.

Those looking to check whether a virus is real should look up security software websites like Symantec or McAffee, or a general hoax-busting site like www.snopes.com.

"Please do not forward virus warnings that ask you to forward them to other people," reports an expert from the Technical University of Berlin.

Any letter that asks you to do so is 99 percent likely to be fake, he added. - Sapa-DPA

- SAPA