A rising tide of warnings about nonexistent computer threats is proving nearly as disruptive as the actual viruses, experts say. The hoaxes have become a kind of virus themselves, passed along with good intentions but sometimes swamping computer networks. It's not that computer viruses aren't a real problem. After all, they can be delivered by e-mail, and they can alter or destroy data. In some cases, such as the recent Melissa outbreak, the virus attempts to mail copies of itself to anyone in a users' e-mail address book.
Experts say there are a number of warning signs that can help users spot false virus alerts.
Many virus hoaxes often contain misspellings and grammatical errors typical of the youngsters who usually create the hoaxes and release them. Although it may seem to be an obvious scam, apparently there are still people falling victim to it with quite serious consequences.