Hoaxes - Don't believe all you see or read!!

Isn't it disappointing to learn that so many of the things we read or see on the net are simply figments of some bored sicko's mind. These have to be smart people to figure them out for us gullible trusting folks, I think they are the same type people who come up with virusus to just destroy what is a good thing just out of meanness. I really fell for the picture of the guy standing on top of the WTC with the plane coming at it. I am embarrassed that I sent this one out to several friends before I checked it out. Then had to apologize. And so many of us were impressed with the "Tribute to America" by a Canadian, this one is true but was written 30 years ago. Check out the link below.


http://urbanlegends.miningco.com/library/blxterror.htm

This message was edited Wednesday, Sep 26th 11:15 PM

Thanks for your candor, Azalea. :-) You bring up a good topic! One of the most frustrating things is stories sent on in ignorance, and I bet every one of us has done this at some time or another. Maybe even with the preface, "I'm not sure if this is true or not, but I thought I'd send it just in case".

I am stepping onto my soapbox now because I feel so strongly about this issue.

If you are not sure, don't send it. Why should your 50 (or even 5) recipients have to muddle through and find out for themselves? It's your responsibility to pass along good and true information in the first place, right? And if you're not sure and send it, and they're not sure and send it...Well, you can see what happens, right?

Think of the actual damage some hoaxes have caused. Here are just three examples:

Procter & Gamble has had to spend countless dollars printing pamphlets and instituting an 800 number for the sole purpose of debunking the age-old urband legend that they're satanic. That one started out in the 1970's with paper petitions and word-of-mouth, but it's still making its rounds in the form of e-mail. http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/procterandgamble.htm

And one virus warning hoax tells people to delete a certain file (Sulfnbk.exe) from their hard drive. In reality, this file is a Windows utility used to restore long file names. http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/sulfnbk.htm

The FCC and CBS are inundated with calls, e-mails and letters because of another ages-old hoax making its round again: that Madeline Murray O'Hare is trying to get "Touched by An Angel" off of TV. What? She's dead? Oh, that's okay, now we'll have a rumor saying she's still influencing people "from the grave" through her organization. Gimme a break. http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/madelynmurrayohair-touched.htm

There are more examples of hoaxes causing genuine harm. I'm sure many of you can think of examples.

I think of it like this: If I send out a bunch of "this might be true, so..." e-mails and people find them to be false, how is my credibility as a source of good information going to suffer? And what if I then send info on a bona-fide threat?

It gets to be like the boy who cried wolf; no one will believe me anymore.

Here are some other excellent sites dedicated to debunking
netlore, urban legends, and hoaxes (as well as telling you when something is true!):

Snopes: http://www.snopes.com
This is another of the best researched sites on the topic.

Truth or Fiction: http://www.truthorfiction.com
I always recommend this one because it includes many of the
"warm fuzzy" stories and pray requests circulating. They go a step further and give documentation supporting OR debunking the story as well. In many cases, they've investigated and spoken to the parties mentioned in the stories.

Hoaxbusters:: http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/
Who ya gonna call... ;-)

The resources for checking this stuff out are abundant. We really need to use them! Anyone else have some favorites?

Let's arm ourselves with knowledge, guys!

If you e-mail this thread to twenty four of your closest friends, you will have good luck and Microsoft will send me on an all-expense paid trip to Disneyworld!

;-) Kimberley

Just in case anyone is interested, I would like to second the above, and inform all my correspondents that I do not accept forwards. My own dear old mother can't get this through her head, so she regularly sends me real intelligence insulters. I tried to warn her, but now I just delete them unopened, and if she mentions it, I remind her that I set my computer to reject such mail. I learned the hard way after not one but several crashes. Thanks for a good and useful thread.

Some aren't hoaxes but have been sent round for so many years they are out of date. 6 years ago my work received a letter requesting we send business cards as a young boy with a terrible disease was trying to collect as many cards as possible and get into the world record books. Well, I sent some out but because the address given was wrong and it came back to me.

2 years ago I read a national newspaper with a report that this letter had been started 15 years ago, the young lad in question had recovered from the illness (thank goodness) and although the family had moved they still recieved 3 bags of mail a day from all over the world.

The Snopes site is a favorite of mine, because it's searchable. When somebody sends me a suspicious story, I just say to myself...Hmmm, let's see about that! and I seach through Snopes to see what they have to say.

The other day I got a really goofy one (Aimee is right to call them intelligence insulters) about a virus that somebody was sending people through the US mail in a blue envelope. It was just plain ridiculous! But, just to be sure, I searched Google on the words "virus blue envelope." Guess what? The Centers for Disease Control has a web page debunking this ridiculous story, which may have started long ago but is hot again now because of all the fears of germ warfare.

I heard a story on NPR yesterday about the fake Nostradamus prediction that people were forwarding after 9/11. They tracked down the young man (now a college student in Canada) who wrote that piece 4 years ago and published it to his own website as an example of how easy it is to fake Nostradamus verses.

Also, NPR said that the video of Palestinian people celebrating was NOT old footage taken during the Gulf War (which is the rumor that was going around last week). OTOH, NPR reported that the woman who was cheering in the foreground and her story says that she cheered because somebody (the cameraman? the reporter? a bystander? I'm not sure) offered her cake. The NPR reporter also pointed out that if you look closely at the video there are a few people celebrating in the foreground and a lot more people ignoring the scene in the background. In other words, that it was not very widespread, and maybe (if the woman's story is believable) it was staged.

suky

Ya'll are after my own heart! I too use Snopes...and Google. I have trained most of my friends to "look it up" before sending to me. I had remebered recieving the Canadian thing (which I thought was lovely) two years ago. So when it came in to me 6 times in ONE DAY, I researched it...then sent the link to all who sent it to me. I had a Dr's appointment the day of the WTC tradgey, stopped in his office, was told I would have a rather long wait...told the girl I just didn't feel like waiting. She mentioned the Nostradamus thing...I got home and had 2 forwards about it...checked it out on Snopes. One thing we are doing to keep down getting a virus is that each thing we send that has an attachment we have a "secret code" we put in after the subjest....Mine is (Jody)...some use their dogs name...anything that we all recognize. Works really well. Jo (Jody)

Jody - good idea about the code!

Ya know, it's kinda funny...I got an e-mail attachment from an old friend from a previous church we attended. I'd lost touch with her. But, because of forwards by mutual friends who didn't delete the previous recipients' addresses, my e-mail address was on her computer and the worm wended its way to me. Now I have her e-mail address. I guess this is the first positive thing I've ever associated with a virus, LOL!

I knew before opening the e-mail (sans infected attachment - Norton AV zapped it as it was downloading) that it was the result of a virus' propagation. The message body was some really technical mumbo-jumbo my friend, a widow who must be about 80, would NEVER say. Goofball hackers.

This is a good thread and thanks for the the great sites GW! I have already e-mailed them to family and friends that continually forward messages to me despite my pleas not to! Hopefully they will finally get the hint.
Cindy

Good thread, and great sites, GW. Thanks!

As a Canadian would like to add that although Mr. Sinclair wrote that peice many years ago and in fact Mr Sinclair has since passed away, the tribute to Americian still reflects the thoughts and feelings of many Canadians today.
It is worth the read today more than ever in my opinion.
Theresa

Oh, Gwydion, I agree with you completely! And we thank all our Canadian friends, and friends from all over the world for their kind words in this time of our sorrow. As to forwards, I love getting good jokes and pictures through the email, but those names on it makes me shiver. I sent this message to some of my most lax friends: "Clean-up your mail....don't leave a trail!" Jo

I haven't followed all the links, but snopes.com
is a good place to check out hoaxes.