I recently received an email hoax from a friend. I did the research to make sure it was a genuine hoax and then emailed her in a nice way explaining that she had sent it to every one in her address book. I took time to show her how to find out if they are hoaxes before share emails then to anyone.
My question is this, are email hoaxes benine in general or should we report them through CastleCops? Can they be a mask for something more sinister?
Thank you,
Joe

Welcome to the CC Forum.

First, I think your action (or reaction) to the received hoax is the best way of dealing with these. I have done the same dozens of times, and each time it has educated one person.

Are there any of these hoaxes that are actually harmful? Possibly, but I don't know of any personally. There are lots of collections of email hoaxes on the Internet; Google will find them for you. http://www.sophos.com/security/hoaxes/ is one of them.

I am glad to say that I have received far less hoax mails recently then some 5 to 10 years ago. Perhaps I have just educated everyone around me - or Internet users are getting smarter?