After discovering the Anna worm on Monday, anti-virus software technicians were diligently and urgently working on finding and posting the antidote. Adding to the confusion the very same day, AV technicians also had to investigate a hoax virus warning, Beverage.exe. VBS.SST was an encrypted mass mailing worm that, when activated, copied and sent itself to all entries in the user's address book. While this worm did not carry a destructive payload as such, the result was overloaded e-mail servers and server downtime, i.e. lost productivity. That equals lost money.
Hoaxes potentially pose the same threat.
The objective of a hoax is to have a user e-mail the fake virus warning to everybody in the user's address book. If every computer user did this for every hoax offered, e-mail servers would be flooded with traffic, and could potentially crash. While a virus hoax does not cause damage to the user's computer, it's the e-mail servers that are in danger. Virus on mobile phone - A hoax that warns users of a virus that affects mobile telephones. Wobbler Virus - A hoax that notifies users of the existence of a virus more dangerous than Melissa.