That’s exactly what happened with the SULFNBK virus e-mail. The e-mail is a hoax. There is no virus.  Lots of people, however, fell for this one. After all, it threatens to wipe out your hard drive and gives you instructions to repair it right in the e-mail. So many folks just follow the instructions and think that they have eliminated a virus. Actually if you follow the instructions, you will think that you are infected because you will find the sulfnbk.exe file. Of course you will find it! It is a Windows utility that is used to restore long file names. Fortunately, sulfnbk.exe is not needed for normal system operations. If you deleted it, you have caused no great harm.

Don’t fall for this or any other hoax. The next one could have you deleting an important file. Check out any similar e-mail at the Hoaxbusters Web site , which is run by the CIAC (Computer Incident Advisory Capability) and the US Department of Energy. Simply look in the hoax index or search for the name of the hoax.

Another useful website for hoaxes is Snopes. This is a website where you can look up possible hoaxes by category or by search. Their 25 Hottest Urbal Legends list gives the latest stories circulated by email. Be forewarned though, the Snopes site has a ton of advertising pop-ups. So if you are bothered by pop-ups, you may not want to visite this site.

Remember that most e-mail hoaxes sound very real. They often use technical sounding language and may even mention credible references. E-mail from an unknown source can be trashed immediately. If the e-mail comes from someone you know and trust, no matter how realistic it sounds, you will want to check it out. Several Internet sites give lists of the current hoaxes. Symantec's AntiVirus Research Center  is an excellent resource.

If you find that a friend e-mailed you a hoax, be sure to notify them that they have been duped. You may want to say this is a nice way, so as not to lose a friend. Be sure to e-mail them a link to or information from Symantec, Hoaxbusters, McAfee, or wherever you found the hoax information. If you do that, you are helping to educate them about hoaxes so they will be more knowledgeable in the future. This will also benefit you by hopefully eliminating at least a few of the hoaxes that you receive.

One of the biggest risks about hoax messages is their ability to multiply. Most people send the hoax messages to everyone in their address books. Do the math. If the first person sends the letter to twenty people and those twenty people each send it to twenty more, by the time the hoax has gone through six generations, it would have been sent to sixty-four million people. These chain letters steal people’s precious time as well as slow down mail servers. Another risk has recently come to light. Spammers (bulk mailers of unsolicited e-mail) sometimes use hoaxes and chain letters to harvest e-mail addresses. They can easily get hundreds of good e-mail addresses from hoax e-mails.

Subjects like A Little Girl is Dying, Virtual Greeting Card, A Missing Child, and Let the Good Times Roll are enticing, but before you share that e-mail with your friends, check it out.