The joke's on you: Beware of Internet hoaxes Wal-Mart rumble? Tax on e-mail? Gates payday? Bogus, bogus and bogus
By Herb Weisbaum
msnbc.com contributor
updated 4:39 p.m. CT, Tues., March. 31, 2009
Herb Weisbaum
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Let's play a game of "what if." What if you got an e-mail or text message
warning that a gang initiation would happen at a local Wal-Mart this week and
it involved killing people?
a) Forward it to your friends and family in the area. b) Call the police. c)
Realize it was a hoax and hit delete.
If you chose a or b, you're not alone.
In the last few weeks, this bogus warning about gang violence at Wal-Mart
stores has spread like wildfire. Different versions have different targets:
black women, white women, children or men.
It sounds crazy, but this mass e-mailing is being taken seriously by a lot of
people. Police departments across country have been flooded with 911 calls.
Many have issued news releases telling people these gang alerts are hoaxes.
"This thing was starting to get way out of hand," says Deputy Scott Wilson,
public information officer for sheriff's department in Kitsap County, Wash.
"Clearly people believed this." Some of the callers demanded a deputy come to
their house. Others wanted to make sure the sheriff's department knew about the
threat, so officers could stake out the stores.
According to the web site Snopes.com, a trusted authority on urban legends, the
first e-mail about this gang initiation rite surfaced in July of 2005. It has
come back in various forms over the years. For some unknown reason, it picked
up steam again.
The fear factor
A lot of e-rumors play on people's fears. They warn that something bad is about
to happen: the government is going to tax every e-mail; wireless companies are
about to release everyone's cell phone numbers; carjackers are placing flyers
on windshields to trick drivers into getting out of their vehicles. All of
these "warnings" have been circulating for years. All of them are untrue.
"Even if people are skeptical about an e-mail, they will forward the ones that
involve a threat or warning of danger "says Rich Buhler, founder of the web
site TruthOrFiction.com. In many cases they'll put a note at the top that says
something like, "I don't know if this is true but just in case ."
E-Rumors never die
"One of the most remarkable things is the persistence of these e-mail hoaxes,"
notes Steve Fox, editorial director at PC World. "It can disappear for years
and then come back in a slightly mutated form."
Fox notes that one of the original e-mail hoaxes, Bill Gates will pay you to
forward an e-mail, is still making the rounds. For 10 years now, news reports
have explained that this message is bogus. And yet, it will not die.
How do these things get started? No one knows for sure. Sid Shuman, senior
editor at GamePro magazine, has followed urban legends for more than a decade.
He says there are "a lot of jokesters on the Internet" who love to fool people
with their creations.
CONTINUED : Sincere intentions? Or deliberate hoaxes?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29978402/
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