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AOL Hacker Alert

Forwarded by "Ghost," 05/13/98:

Subj: Fwd: Read this or your AOL is dead!
Date: 98-04-16 01:02:41 EDT

  Your Screen Name has Been Added to the ß®øöô¥ £•¼ Hackers List!
  Here is how we work. Because we master AOL everytime this letter is sent out a copy is also instantly send to us. We then scan out all the names, and place them on our hackers list. Once you send out this letter 10 times your name again is instantly removed from our list. If this letter is not sent out exactly 45 minutes after you have opened it your name will not be able to be removed from our hacking list. Here is what happened when your name is stuck on the ß®øöô¥ £•¼ hackers list.
  -Your AOL password is pulled out of AOL's files. Stupidly AOL stores your password on a password access website. We have cracked the password needed and have access to every account except for AOL guides (cat guides).
  -We gain your credit card number, social security number, and home address. Your credit card information and home address is stored at the AOL site and with that we can gain you social security number.
  -Everytime you sign on AOL your account will be messed around with.
  -and much, much more with the power of ß®øöô¥ £•¼ hackers.

  Don’t believe this? We don't care at all because not following the directions given will harm you in over 10 ways. All you have to do is send this out to 10 people and you will never have to worry about this again. If you receive this letter again after sending it out you don't need to send it out again, because your name is not able to be put back on.
  Why are we doing this? It is to get back at AOL, and we are taking action. When the members of ß®øöô¥ £•¼ hackers first signed up for AOL they were not hackers. Once they had to start paying 21 dollars for AOL they decided to fuck over AOL. Also the ß®øöô¥ £•¼ hackers are doing this because of the many ads on AOL. When you first sign on AOL you receive too many ads and shit when you go to AOL channels, and more pop ads when you click on things. We have had enough! That's why ß®øöô¥ £•¼ exists. All you must do now is send this to 10 other AOL members and you will never again have to worry about ß®øöô¥ £•¼ hackers.

  SEND THIS OUT NOW TO 10 PEOPLE IF YOU WANT TO SAVE YOUR ACCOUNT, CREDIT CARD, AND MUCH MORE!

Guide's note:  This alert began circulating among AOL members in mid-April, 1998 – just weeks after the infamous AOL Hacker Riot Warning scared everyone silly with the claims that service would be disrupted and individual users attacked by computer viruses on June 1.

Both warnings were hoaxes. The "hacker riot" never came about. No attacks by the "ß®øöô¥ £•¼  hackers" – if such a group even exists – are known to have occurred.

Two obvious indications that the message is a hoax:

  1. The claim that the hackers will receive a copy every time the message is forwarded and thus will be able to track and punish disobedient recipients. There's no explanation of how this could be accomplished. AOL says it's not technically feasible (see Further Adventures in Email Tracking).

  2. The claim that AOL stores all passwords on a Website accessible to hackers. This is absurd. A Website would be the last place secure information would be stored. AOL has internal mainframe computers for this purpose.

This warning was the work of pranksters, not hackers. Like the riot warning, it exploits both the ignorance and the legitimate fears of AOL members. Historically, America Online has been victimized by real hackers, and any number of actual password stealing scams and Trojan horse programs designed to sniff out personal information have been uncovered.

AOL provides security information for members' protection at Keyword: Neighborhood Watch.


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