Tiggy Posted April 9, 2010 Share Posted April 9, 2010 I have received an alert via a police contact, if you get an e mail from Simon25@hotmail dont open it. he is a hacker and you will lose everything in your PC, at the moment you safety programes will not stop him once you open the message Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chucky Mama Posted April 9, 2010 Share Posted April 9, 2010 Thanks for the warning but Snopes say that it is a hoax. http://www.snopes.com/computer/internet/hackermail.asp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiggy Posted April 9, 2010 Author Share Posted April 9, 2010 I hope so, but OH uncle sent us the message via the police so I think I'll err on the side of caution any how Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A chickychickychick-ENN!! Posted April 11, 2010 Share Posted April 11, 2010 I get scare/hoax/virus messages from friends in the police force but they are often wrong because they are just sending them from their work accounts as concerned people, not as professionals who have actually done their homework to see if there is any truth to the email scare. Snopes is very reliable, and people who are in the police, when it comes to this, are often well-intentioned, ungeeky mortals. Hoaxes are put out to create fear and waste people's time. Checking Snopes can save you anxiety and helps you get one over the individuals who send out these kind of nasty emails in the first place by helping you not fall for their nasty scams and forwarding the fear by unwittingly mis-informing other people. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
debbier Posted April 11, 2010 Share Posted April 11, 2010 Hoaxes are put out to create fear and waste people's time. Checking Snopes can save you anxiety and helps you get one over the individuals who send out these kind of nasty emails in the first place by helping you not fall for their nasty scams and forwarding the fear by unwittingly mis-informing other people. Very well put: I'd like to forward that to my well meaning friend who forwards these things on to her whole address book regularly, even though I've advised her to check first. If everyone who gets such things forwards them on in such a manner "just in case" then the exponential rise in the number of naff messages doing the rounds is scary as well as unnecessary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shoura Posted April 11, 2010 Share Posted April 11, 2010 I've asked my friends not to forward these scare stories to me as invariably when I check them on Snopes they prove to be untrue....Such a waste of time Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoid Posted April 11, 2010 Share Posted April 11, 2010 Its sort of spam posting these sort of things. (Not that it was intentional) Check on Snopes before posting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christian Posted April 11, 2010 Share Posted April 11, 2010 I am sure the posting on here was well intentioned and not meant as 'spam' Fred. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoid Posted April 11, 2010 Share Posted April 11, 2010 I am also sure it was meant in good sprit. Just check before posting, as most of these email 'warnings' are hoaxes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christian Posted April 11, 2010 Share Posted April 11, 2010 yep, got that. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chucky Mama Posted April 11, 2010 Share Posted April 11, 2010 Poor Tiggy, I have no doubt that they were trying to do us all a favour. My finger was hovering over the send button to inform those in my addressbook when I remembered and checked Snopes otherwise I would have sent the email. I only knew about Snopes from seeing it mentioned on the forum some time ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiggy Posted April 13, 2010 Author Share Posted April 13, 2010 thanks guys, I had never heard of Snopes, I will just ignore these in future, the only reason I posted was that it was forwarded from OHs uncle who is retired now but worked for 'security' all very cloak & dagger so I thought it was legit, which is why I posted on here. Its amazing what you learn on Omlet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whoopsie Posted April 13, 2010 Share Posted April 13, 2010 I didn't know about Snopes either. Thankyou x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
