would be funny to send a false letter of resignation for a new university official. They also circulated demands for tuition to other students and letters implying that the official was gay. Administrators had begun acting on the resignation before they found out it was a fake.
In another bizarre incident, readers of
alt.fan.douglas-adams, the
USENET fan club for
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
author
Douglas
Adams, started circulating rumors that genuine postings from Adams --
who occasionally reads the newsgroup -- were fake. Then an actual
fake Douglas Adams started sending abusive notes to readers. The real
Douglas Adams had a terrible time straightening out the mess.
Forging email is just as wrong as forging a paper letter. Forged email is
also fairly easy to trace. Bad idea.
Have you ever gotten one of those letters promising you millions of
dollars if you just send a few dollars to a list of people, but threatening
you with hideous death within a year if you don't? Those things circulate in cyberspace as well. The best-known is a long, rambling letter
signed by "Dave Rhodes." It appears periodically in random discussion
groups and mailboxes.
Chain letters are forbidden on
BITNET and on most commercial network services. If you receive a copy of the "Dave Rhodes" letter, or any
other chain letter, don't follow the instructions! Forward a copy to your
system administrator or postmaster and request that action be taken
against the sender. You can also reply to the sender yourself and tell
him or her that sending chain letters is not acceptable network behavior.
Some people don't stop with forging email from real people. Some
people construct entire fictional companies and publicize them on the
net.
A recent example that received a lot of publicity was the
Sexonix hoax.
A fellow named
Joey Skaggs announced to the media that he had set up
Chain letters
Electronic
hoaxes
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