If you are as annoyed by these misinformed emails as I am, help is on the way. Here are some of the most common types of email hoaxes and several ways for you to check the credibility of the next suspicious email you get.
1. The Sick Kid Email Hoax: The names and diseases change, but the premise is basically the same. A young child, stricken with a horrible, fatal disease, wishes for everyone to pass the email along to friends, relatives, work buddies, distant acquaintances, etc. Usually the email says that each person sending it on causes a donation to be made to a charity or research facility so that the world will be eradicated of the disease in the future. Bottom line? There are no email tracking programs that will generate money at the click of the send button.
2. The Virus Email Hoax: Pass this on to everybody in your email address book! The “Insert latest virus name here” is going to crash your hard drive, cause you major headaches and cost you tons of money. Okay, reality check. Yes, real viruses can be nasty and expensive. But if your best plan for attack is to rely on your friends for a virus warning, you may have bigger problems.3. The “True” Urban Legend Email Hoax: Is there such a thing as a true urban legend? Usually, no. Your helpful friends want you to be safe and informed, so they send you along the convincing stories warning against all kinds of different dire scenarios. Any of the following sound familiar? HIV needle in the phone booth/gas nozzle/movie theater. The poor sap that paid $250 for a cookie. The man who had his kidneys stolen. The person in the shopping mall parking lot waiting to spray you with perfume (which is really ether) so they can debilitate you and steal your cash.
4. Giveaways and Free Money Email Hoaxes: These are anything from the ones where you send the email on and sit back to wait for your free clothes/candy/money to appear, to the granddaddy of them all: the Nigerian Hoax Email Scam.
5. Chain Letter Emails: Okay, I admit, these are not dangerous, just annoying! You mean to tell me, if I don’t send emails on to at least 10 people, I am an antisocial creep destined to become a lonely elderly cat person? (And I love cats!) Please. I am embarrassed to send these silly letters on to my friends, which is why I never do.
So how do you find out if an email forward you’ve received is an email hoax? There are a number of good websites that will help you out. My personal favorite is http://www.truthorfiction.com/ I can click on the search box, enter in the title or key phrase in the email I have just received, and it will instantly give me the real scoop.
There are also other sites that offer good email hoax information: http://www.hoax-slayer.com/, http://www.vmyths.com/ for information on computer viruses, http://www.hoaxbusters.ciac.org/, and http://www.snopes.com/. These are just a few of the many sites containing information about hoaxes, myths, and urban legends.
Now, for the more delicate question. What do you do about all those friends who send this junk to you? Do you tell them the email is bogus? Quietly delete it? I, for one, don’t really want to make my friends feel stupid, so I usually quietly ignore the harmless or long-circulating ones. However, when I receive one that I think merits concern, I will usually send a link to one of the hoax sites so they can get the truth. Does it help? Well, I still get stupid forwarded emails. But at least I know I’ve done my part to educate a few people about not always believing what they read. I hope I’ve done my part to help you, too!
More resources Truth or Fiction: http://www.truthorfiction.com/ Hoax Slayer: http://www.hoax-slayer.com/ Hoaxbusters: http://www.hoaxbisters.ciac.org/
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