Search here for All Hoax emails and fake Virus Alerts Worldover

These days I am sure you will get a lot of email forwards. A percentage of which are hoax or rumor.

The emails are written in such a way that even your best friends believe it’s absolutely true and forward to you with a lot of interest. Few hoax mails:

• Bill Gates sharing his fortune. Microsoft and AOL are running an e-mail beta test. For every person that you forward this e-mail to, Microsoft will pay you $245.00 For every person that you sent it to that forwards it on, Microsoft will pay you $243.00 and for every third person that receives it, You will be paid $241.00. Within two weeks, Microsoft will contact you for your address and then send you a check.

• Internet users can receive free laptop computers from Ericsson for forwarding an email message to eight friends.

• There is an email with subject line obama acceptance speech floating around with a trojan horse attachment. The trojan steals all passwords and user ids.

• We have identified a new computer virus that arrives in an e-mail with the subject line “Mail Server Report”.

• Cell phone numbers are being released to telemarketing companies and you will start to receive sales calls. YOU WILL BE CHARGED FOR THESE CALLS…
• To prevent this, call the following number from your cell phone: 888-382-1222. It is the national DO NOT CALL list.

• Warning about scammers’ running up long-distance charges by asking victims to press #-9-0 on their telephones.

Result is a chain email with waste of time & resource for everyone apart from building up misconceptions.

Here are 10 ways to find whether an email is hoax.

1. Initial Luring content to make it interesting.A threat that warns you of dire consequences if you don’t do what it says.
2. A humble request to further spread the hoax.
3. Hoaxes will often include a promise that it is not a hoax
4. Use Snopes.com to find whether the content is true or hoax. With Snopes you can even contribute by submitting rumors and fake photos or videos.

Example problem 1 : Using Add/Remove components after you upgrade from SP2 to SP3 in Windows XP/When dealing with inf files: “Setup was unable to open information file setupqry.inf. Contact your system administrator. The specific error code is 0×2 at line 0.”

Solution: (1) The <Filename>.inf is located in the SP3 package itself, but it may not be installed properly.

1. Find <Filename>.inf in the folder of i386 in the SP3 file by extracting it.
2. Copy it to the respective folder in your Windows directory.
3. Start Add/Remove programs now, you will now get an error saying it could not start a specific <Filename.dll>.
4. Find the required dll from internet. CAUTION – Download from a known site and then scan the file BEFORE  install.
5. Place the <Filename.dll> file in the Windows/System32 folder.
6. The problem should be solved by now.

Solution: (2) Editing the inf file

1. Go to C:\Windows\inf folder. If you cannot see the folder unhide it(Tools>Folder Options>View>Hidden files and folders>(Select)Show hidden files and folders) .
2. Open the file <Filename>.inf in an editor.
3. Comment out the line with a semicolon in the beginning of the line for the MISSING file.( ; is the syntax for comments in inf files). Re-start  Add/Remove Windows components.

Example problem 2: KB842773 installation did not complete. BITS 2.0 and WinHTTP 5.1 (KB842773). Update.exe extended error code = 0×2

Solution: Clear the temporary file and restart the hotfix installation or the service pack installation

Example problem 3: Automated System Recovery (ASR) through Asr_pfu.exe file [More detailed Link]. This behavior occurs if one of the following conditions is true:

• You use backup media from the release version of Windows Server 2003.
• You use this backup media to restore a computer that has a service pack installed.

You use backup media from a version of Windows Server 2003 that has a service pack installed. You use this backup media to restore a computer that is running the release version of Windows Server 2003.

Solution: To work around this behavior, restore the computer by using a backup set that has the same service-pack level as the computer. For example, to restore a computer that is running the release version of Windows Server 2003, use a backup set that contains the release version of Windows Server 2003.

To restore a computer that is running Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1), use a backup set that contains Windows Server 2003 SP1.

BackGrounder: Error 2 – Error Code 0×2 is ‘ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND’

Option 1: Press the Windows and Pause Break key together.

You will get a pop up to display the product ID, Computer Name, Domain of your Computer, System Manufacturer, Processor, Memory(RAM) etc.

Option 2: Type Winver in Windows > Start Search (Alternatively in Command Prompt)

Here you will get only Windows Version and Build with RAM in kB.

Option 3: Is a small Registry work

1. Open Registry Editor by typing Regedt32 or Regedit in Start Search (Alternatively in Command Prompt), then hit Enter.
2. Navigate to the following:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion
3. On the right side, you will see much more information under Name and Data.