According to several of the major hoax tracking sites, the number one hoax currently being circulated is calling for a boycott of Shell, Chevron, Texaco, and Exxon-Mobil stations, since these oil companies are funding terrorists. The same email also asks drivers to only purchase gasoline from several other companies listed, since they do not support terrorism by only refining and selling oil from non-mideastern sources. This misinformation could unfairly hurt local businesses and employees, has been totally debunked, and is grossly inaccurate, yet I am still receiving several copies of this hoax on a daily basis.
Some of the other recent appeals I have received claim that Cindy Williams, of Laverne and Shirley fame, wrote an op-ed editorial in a Washington, D.C., newspaper asking congress not to give the U.S. military much needed pay raises. Another is calling for a boycott of all Pepsi products because Pepsi refused to include “One nation under God” on its patriotic labeled beverage cans. Others are appeals for missing children that are either totally fictitious, or not missing, or soliciting business cards, baseball caps, teddy bears, or other gifts for a child recovering from cancer. Once again, I am receiving hoaxes that allege that by forwarding emails to my friends, an email tracking program (there is no such thing), will automatically send me thousands of dollars in cash, gift certificates to Red Lobster, Old Navy, Outback, Olive Garden, and other local businesses. Some even claim that something magical in the email itself will open a popup window as soon as I send 10 copies of the email to my friends, providing printable high-value coupons. Some even include a fictitious statement from a non-existent lawyer or CPA that this is real, not a hoax, and really works. Let me assure you here and now that Bill Gates, Intel, AOL, and others are not paying individuals to forward emails to friends promoting a new product.
Several of the urban legends are actually humorous. One recent one includes several realistic looking images of Japanese women wearing a new fashion, supposedly opaque skirts with a printed image making them appear to be “see through”. This has been proven to be a hoax.
There are also hoaxes circulating that may unnecessarily invoke fear in the recipient, and may also unjustly hurt local businesses. Hoaxes about slashers hiding under cars at the mall, thieves knocking out victims at major department stores by having them smell perfume samples, little girls abducted at a local discount store and then having their hair cut and being dressed in little boy’s clothes, and other similar stories often cause undue alarm in shoppers.
Another sometimes-insidious type of hoax being widely circulated is the “virus warning” hoax. There are also emails being circulated telling users to create a dummy entry in their address books, such as “AAAAAA” or “!00000”, claiming that this will provide immunity to the Klez worm, Bugbear, Yaha, and other email stealing viruses and worms. Not just does this not work against any of the current crop of viruses and worms (although it could provide some minimal protection against some rare older viruses), it can also give the user a false sense of security. This falsehood can then encourage the user to open questionable emails, infecting his computer, and replicating the virus or worm to others. Another possibly damaging hoax warns users that a recent report on CNN and verified by IBM and Microsoft, claims that there is a dangerous virus that will destroy the data on a computer, and that it is undetectable by any antivirus software, and must be manually deleted by the user before his computer is wiped out. Using “human engineering”, the gullible user is then instructed to search his hard drive for the file “JBDGMGR.EXE” and immediately delete it. The problem is that this file is a legitimate Windows file, and is often used by Windows; deleting it can lead to problems, and the file must be restored from the Windows CD.
Before forwarding any suspicious emails, even if they come from a reliable source, check them out first. There are several excellent websites that document hoaxes and urban legends, and will indicate if they are totally false (most are false), have some grain of truth that has been greatly exaggerated, or are indeed true. My personal favorite site to check emails is urbanlegends.about.com. At the top of the page is a search box, and by entering a few key words in the box, and searching “in this topic”, will usually provide accurate information on these messages. There are several links on this site to other hoax sites. Another excellent site, offering both a menu interface, and a search box is at www.snopes.com. Warnings about viruses can be easily verified at these sites, or on the websites of any of the major antivirus software publishers; all have current listings of virus hoaxes.
Please avoid the well-intentioned forwarding of these hoax and urban legend emails. While some of these messages may be harmless, others can cause serious damage.
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