Many of these hoaxes offer “get rich quick by forwarding this”, such as several I received in the past few days. Citing claims, such as actually seeing the check for thousands of dollars payable to a local attorney, with variations claiming that the checks were from Microsoft, Intel, AOL, Apple, Xerox, or other companies, a quick review of the local phone books reveals no such local attorney, despite the claims of the local senders. Bill Gates probably does not feel guilty with his wealth, so he will not likely be paying any of us $145 for each email we forward to our friends fostering his emotional catharsis, despite allegations that “someone who knew someone” actually received riches from Bill for doing so. Other senders plead to me that the emails they sent to me cannot be hoaxes, because they received them from a highly credible source, sometimes their supervisor or a company executive, that could not be so gullible as to fall for such silliness. A few altruistic souls have appealed to me to reproduce those emails here so that all of the readers of the Examiner can share in the riches. Before forwarding these bogus claims to everyone, consider the potential embarrassment when connecting your name and reputation to these hoaxes. Also remember that there is no such thing as commercial “email tracking” where some big company will know how many of their emails you forwarded, and send you untold riches for spamming your friends and coworkers with this nonsense. A reliable indication of a hoax is the request to forward it to everyone you know.

The popularity of websites debunking these hoaxes has grown substantially, as more computer users wise up, and check these emails for validity before sending them. My personal favorites for verifying hoaxes or urban legends are urbanlegends.about.com, www.snopes.com, and www.urbanlegends.com. Hoaxes about computer viruses can be easily debunked at vil.mcafee.com, www.symantec.com, www.antivirus.com, or almost any other antivirus website. Simply look for the links on those sites about virus hoaxes.

There are many hoaxes currently floating in cyberspace. While many are harmless other than wasting valuable time and computing resources, there are many that can actually do substantial damage to a business. Recent hoaxes cite the false antireligious sentiments of Pepsi and Dr. Pepper who allegedly deleted the words “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance printed on their cans commemorating 9/11. Despite the fact that some local churches and religious leaders forwarded this hoax, it is well documented as a hoax, and also not a cover-up, as some canned responses indicate. Both companies definitively state that there was never any such plan to produce such a package.

Another old, but perennial hoax, is that the U.S. Post Office will be implementing an email tax to make up for the shortfall in postal revenues due to the use of email. The message cites an explicit House bill 602P, and the name of a congressman who introduced the dastardly legislation. A little research indicates that there is no such pending legislation, never has been, and there is no such congress critter. This urban legend has been one of those that I have been frequently asked to announce on my weekly radio shows, demanding that my listeners write Nick Lampson to oppose that bill, or in some versions, ask that he lead the fight to repeal it.

At present, there are no known gang initiations where they are slashing the ankles of women at the mall; there was no little girl kidnapped at a major local retailer, removed from the store either wrapped in a bundle, or with her hair cut in the men’s room, and dressed in little boys clothing. There was no “friendly” Arab who recently thanked a woman for giving him a dollar for a soft drink, and then warned her to either not drink Coke or Pepsi after a certain date, stay out of the mall at a certain time, and not to take her kids trick-or-treating. Another series of hoaxes again circulating, that have only a smidgen of truth, are the #77 cell phone rapist warnings, and the #90 phone scam. Almost all “lost child” emails are hoaxes. Also a shark did not just attack a helicopter, and there is no evidence of millions of poisoned perfume and body lotion samples in the mail. Neiman Marcus never charged $250 for their cookie recipe, and Applebee’s, Outback, Cheddars, Tommy Hilfigure, and others are not giving away gift certificates for forwarding their phony advertising emails.

Due to the hoaxes following 9/11, Snopes, www.snopes.com, created a separate section “Rumors of War” where terrorism hoaxes are debunked, and factual stories have been verified. The Arab employees of a Dunkin Donuts did not cheer; a Budweiser driver did not remove all of the beer from an Arab run convenience store; there was no camera found with a photo of a tourist on the observation deck of the WTC with the lethal aircraft in the background, and many others.

Please do not forward questionable emails without verifying them first. Save yourself some time and potential embarrassment.

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