For the last few years, the internet community has endured a
wave of e-mail hoaxes and pranks, exploiting users'
unfamiliarity with how the internet, and computer systems in
general work. With the explosive growth of the internet and its
popularity, more and more new users are "getting online" and
becoming targets for pranksters. "Ancient" myths, like the
cookie story, are just waiting for a critical mass of people who
have not been exposed, so that they can go streaming across the
net again. There is no technical solution to this problem. Even
when users become experienced enough to be able to tell a silly
message when they see one, anyone can get suckered sometimes. It
seems that all users of the internet will have to put up with a
certain amount of nonsense. Generally, these messages are only
an annoyance, but internet hoaxes have already cost victims
property, reputation, and even endangered their lives..
Experienced users call these problem messages Junk-mail Viruses,
because they act like other computer