We often will receive e-mails with dire warnings of new viruses. But often, the viruses that these warnings alert you to are "hoaxes."

There are many authentic viruses discovered each year. Unfortunately, many more virus alerts are simply hoaxes conjured up by someone's disruptive imagination. These hoaxes are sent as e-mail messages that usually tell you about a disruptive virus that will do awful things. They go on to tell you that you should forward this message to your friends to tell them of the terrible virus that they could receive. They may even tell you to delete files or take other action on your own computer.

It is tempting for individuals to forward the hoax messages multiple times. This creates unnecessary traffic on computer networks and e-mail systems around the world.

If you receive any e-mail messages that seem to be hoaxes you can go to http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/hoax.html. The Web site has a very comprehensive list of hoax viruses and will tell you which ones to ignore.