19 Oct 2005
Don't pass on bogus Sainsbury's Gift Vouchers chain letter
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| Computer users should not believe everything they
read in their email. |
An email chain letter which deludes people into thinking they
will be given £60 worth of supermarket gift vouchers has spread
amongst internet users in the United Kingdom.
The Sainsbury's Gift
Vouchers chain letter claims that the British supermarket is
encouraging users to forward the email to 10 other internet users
to automatically receive vouchers which can be used for groceries
and other goods. However, Sainsbury's has not endorsed the email in
any way and has advised its customers to delete the email if they
receive it.
"The email is clearly nonsense and no such offer exists," said
Graham Cluley,
senior technology consultant for Sophos. "It should be remembered
that hoaxes and chain letters like this are not harmless - they
waste time and bandwidth, and can be a genuine headache for support
departments. Users need to consider carefully whether everything
they receive via email can be trusted."
Sophos has made available a free, constantly updated information feed for intranets and
websites which means users can always find out about the latest
viruses and hoaxes. Furthermore, Sophos recommends that companies
defend their email gateways with a consolidated
solution which protects against the threats of spam and
viruses.
About Sophos
More than 100 million users in 150 countries rely on Sophos as the best protection against complex threats and data loss. Sophos is committed to providing security and data protection solutions that are simple to manage, deploy and use and that deliver the industry's lowest total cost of ownership. Sophos offers award-winning encryption, endpoint security, web, email, and network access control solutions backed by SophosLabs - a global network of threat intelligence centers. With more than two decades of experience, Sophos is regarded as a leader in security and data protection by top analyst firms and has received many industry awards.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.