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Home » Legal Articles » Psst Pass It On I Found Out Its A Hoax

Psst.. Pass It On.. I Found Out It's a Hoax..

When you receive an email telling you about a virus, what do you do with it? Do you send it to everyone in your address book to help them protect themselves too?

A virus warning is probably on its way to your inbox right now, claiming to be from a credible source and warning you of a dangerous virus on the loose. Beware. You might be tricked into taking part in an Internet hoax - chain mail virus alerts.

It is believed that 60% plus of the Virus Warnings in circulation are hoaxes. Further, your anti-virus software may already have a cure for this particular ailment IF it is real.

Even old hoaxes, which have been around for years, can make the rounds again, according to Trend Micro, an anti-virus software company.

'There are a number of new hoaxes because they are so easy to write, you don't need to be a programmer,' the anti-virus company spokesperson said.

What about all of those 'Get Paid to Send Email' schemes? Do you forward them along too, because you do not know if they are true or not, and figure 'why should I take the chance that it is not real?' These 'Get Paid to Send Email' schemes are a fine example of hoaxes that can make the rounds again and again.

There have been at least a dozen incarnations of a 'Get Paid to Send Email' hoax recorded at several of the hoax sites listed in this article. For the complete story, try the search terms 'Bill Gates' or 'Nike' or 'AOL / Microsoft' at any of the Hoax sites.

Let me cut to the chase, no one has the technology to track emails sent through the Internet! No one will ever pay you for sending emails to everyone in your address book! This story is a verified hoax.

Here is a list of Hoax Information Sites that you can check the validity of the warning or the message in your email inbox. You might just be surprised by which items are hoaxes and which are not.

• http://www.kumite.com/myths
• http://www.snopes.com
• http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/
• http://antivirus.about.com/compute/antivirus/

For those people who don't know the tell-tale signs of hoaxes, here's a checklist:

1. IBM/Microsoft/Dell/Gateway have verified this. Does anyone think they care? They don't. If it said Norton, McAfee or any other antivirus vendor I might listen. If a virus killed your computer or software the above companies would be delighted because you'd have to buy more computers, and they would be delighted to sell you one.
2. Even if the email proclaims that one of the virus companies is verifying this virus, where is the link to the virus companies website, detailing the important information concerning this particular strain of virus?
3. Published on CNN. Again, where is the link? Could you find it yourself?
4. You'll never be able to use your computer again. Hogwash. If you got a virus the very worst case is that you'd have to format it and reinstall everything. And that's extremely rare anyway. No virus will harm your computer, only the software on it.
5. This virus damages/destroys Windows and McIntosh systems. More hogwash. These are two very different operating systems with very different ways of executing software.
6. Don't even open it! Yea right. 99.9% of virii are carried in attachments to emails not in the emails themselves. Use a bit of common sense and don't open any unexpected attachments from strange sources. And if you keep your AV software up to date, you're most often covered anyway. (The only email software not safe from some types of viruses are Outlook, Outlook Express, and Netscape 6. Users of Outlook and Outlook Express can visit http://Microsoft.com for the patch to protect these email programs from imbedded vb-script viruses. Netscape 6 users can guarantee their own protection by turning off the JavaScripting feature inside of their Preferences.)
7. Forward to all your friends. Now we're down to the crutch of it. This email IS the virus - a social one. Look at the facts. It gets sent to all your friends. It infects peoples inboxes and causes panic. Sounds like a virus to me. It doesn't actually do any harm like most virii but is a waste of your time.
8. Verify these things yourself before forwarding them. To simplify the task of verification, there is a new freeware application on the market designed to help you do just that. It is called 'Quick Swords V' and it has been developed for you by a new company called InternetMusketeers.com. The 'V' stands for 'Virus'.

Here is an overview of how the software works: 'Simply type in your Search Terms, then click on the Virus / Hoax Information Searches drop down list, and then select your choice for expert guidance on the subject of Viruses and Hoaxes. With Quick Swords V, we can help take the guesswork out of your decision making process. We are giving you direct access to the nearly immediate search results of 16 Virus / Hoax sites on the Internet.'

Quick Swords V (virus) ships as Freeware, so you have no excuse not to verify the Virus information before sending it to everyone in your address book anymore. It only takes a minute to verify the latest juicy warning in your email box. I know your mouse finger is itching to click Forward, but your friends will Thank You for verifying this information before hitting Send!

Instead, click here: http://InternetMusketeers.com/apps/QuickSwords

I would like to thank the following people for assisting me in the gathering of the information presented in this article:

• Steven McCarthy, Co-Owner of A Helping Hand at: http://learn.at/ahh
• Christy, Co-Owner of http://Hackfix.org a non-profit site dedicated to fighting worms and trojans
• Mike Banks, the Owner of Mikes What's News at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MikesWhatsNews

And here is another random article you might be interested in...

Two Reasons to Use Timesheet Software

This short paper will expand on two key reasons to move to a computerized timesheet system at your company. There are more than two reasons of course, but these will be expanded on at a later date. The two key reasons to be discussed here are Timesheet Efficiency, and Timesheet Automation.

Timesheet Efficiency is the concept of a single data entry exercise done accurately and quickly. Timesheet Automation is the simple concept of managing timesheet information electronically rather than on paper. When taken individually both these concepts make a compelling argument to move to electronic timesheets, taken together you should be asking yourself why you aren't kicking off the process today.

Timesheet Efficiency

When I started out my working career in consulting we had paper timesheets. These were (supposedly) to be filled in daily, submitted weekly, and data from them entered into the accounting system monthly. However, people being people, the accountant only checked them once a month, so they were generally only submitted once a month, and thus usually only filled in once a month when prompted by project managers. This resulted in inaccurate and late timesheet information.

This affected billing, time and materials projects would take up to four weeks to be invoiced, and thus it could be up to 60 days before payment was received. Why then are some companies constantly challenged with getting employees to accurately complete their timesheets while other firms have no problems? The difference is usually leadership and data ease of data entry. Most consulting companies employ skilled intelligent people, and a manager who fills in his timesheet information promptly and accurately can legitimately expect his staff to do so. However if the system is cumbersome and difficult to use then there will be constant conflict.

Easy to use computerized timesheet systems mean more employees are successfully filling out timesheets as they work rather than writing the time into a diary or calendar and then transferring the information at the end of the week (or month). It has been well proven that debtors are easier to manager and projects more easily monitored the closer that timesheet information is processed and invoiced to the time the work is carried out. It is just much more simple to collect all your billable hours (more chargeable time!) if employees record their work as they do it.

Of course data entry is just one side of things. Processing the information is just as important. Internal discipline and company policies must be set to ensure that all information is collected by the time you have decided is the deadline. Whether this is Friday 5:00pm, or Monday 9:00am, deadlines must be followed and enforced. Timesheet software with built in workgroup functionality like messaging, timesheet approval, live monitoring, and so on can greatly enhance this process.

There is no point pretending that timesheet information and collection is glamorous. It isn't. It should just be part of the normal mundane fabric of business. It should be routine and boring. But most importantly it should be quick, easy, and provide no disincentive to doing it. Good computerized systems should offer all of this.

Timesheet Automation

The most basic benefit that a computerized timesheet system gives is one of automation, timesheet information is entered into a computer rather than onto paper. This eliminated the need for people to transcribe their timesheet information from a diary onto a paper form, and then for administration staff to re-enter this information into a job costing system. The computerization allows you to completely eliminate the middle steps. Staff enter information directly into the job costing system.

The next logical step of computerization is to leverage off of the computer to provide a host of other benefits. This includes interlocks like preventing people from booking time to projects that dont exist, or projects that are closed, or projects they should not be booking time to. It allows project managers to access live data showing actual time spent on their projects, this data can be manipulated and visualized in different ways using other computer software. It can even interface directly with dedicated project management software.

Other benefits can include automatic timing of work, popup information showing specific project information helping timesheet accuracy, daily timesheets, reminders telling people to fill in their timesheets, integration with messaging, email, and the web, and live integration with accounting packages.

Conclusions

By themselves each of these points makes a good argument for moving to a computerized timesheet system. Taken together they are truly compelling. Increased accuracy and reduction of the billing cycle means that a computerized system can usually measure its payoff in just a few months. For any company that does bill its time, it is should not be an option any longer, it is a simple next step. Interested in looking at some low cost alternatives? Why not take a look at Timesheets Lite or Timesheets MTS. These are low cost systems ideally suited to the small company.