Diagnosis hoax - a case study in detecting an email chain letter
Wednesday, December 1st, 2004Advice on handling email chain letters and hoaxes
I recently received an email from a very reliable contact that said simply “Some good tips!” with a file attached called PoliceTips.doc. The document was a list of eight “tips” for keeping yourself safe in public places, and the strong suggestion is that they were issued by the police.
Before I finished reading the document, I had diagnosed it as a hoax and a chain letter. Here’s how I did it. (more…)