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Nostradamus did not
pen a quatrain in 1654 predicting the fall of the World Trade Center —-
he died in 1566 and he never wrote the words that are being attributed
to him.
You cannot aid the search for Osama bin Laden
by contributing to a group of Estonian hackers and you can't catch the
"Klingerman Virus" by opening an envelope containing a virus-laden blue
sponge. And while we're at it - if Touched by an Angel is taken off the
air it'll be because of contract negotiation troubles or poor ratings.
It'll have nothing to do with atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hare. How do I
know? I checked it out.
These bogus claims and many others have been
speeding through "cyberspace" since the tragedies that befell our nation
in September. It's not a new concept; the circulation of Netlore is as
old as e-mail and is really just a hi-tech way of perpetuating urban legends.
We all heard them as children sitting around a campfire. Big Foot sightings
(always near the camp sight), you can die from combining Pop Rocks and
Coke and a babysitter receives a threatening phone call from an upstairs
extension.
Before you forward a message and have all
of your friends hiding under their beds or sending cards to a cancer-ridden
six-year-old, take a minute to check out the validity of an e-mail message.
It's quick, easy and can actually be pretty entertaining. There are several
Web sites that I regularly check before I forward an e-mail message I
receive. If it passes through the three sites below and I can verify the
originator through either e-mail or a Web site listed within the message,
I will consider forwarding the message.
www.snopes.com - This is the premiere
"Netlore" and "Urban Legend" Web site, in my opinion. There is a full
page of links to rumors about the terrorist attacks on the U.S. as well
as links to nearly 30 categories of Urban Legends and a huge database
that catalogs the old ones in case they resurface. It's also a great source
for scary and humorous stories.
http://urbanlegends.miningco.com -
The Miningco's database of Urban Legends is extensive, but a little more
cumbersome to navigate than snopes. This site lists each subject as either
a hoax, an Urban Legend, a rumor, junk or as true.
www.diamond-back.com/emailhoaxes.html
- This is a privately owned and maintained, but fairly substantial site.
The author, Thomas Robert Pasawicz, aka "Diamond Back," has a pretty good
sense of humor, and has a lot to say about avoiding the perpetuation of
e-mail hoaxes.
Here are some "Warning Signs" from "DiamondBack."
"Legitimate e-mails and Web sites provide
ways to contact the author or webmaster. Just having an e-mail address
doesn't guarantee the writer is honest. Free e-mail addresses are easy
to come by, but if you find a site that offers no hint of the author or
way to contact him/her, then be very suspicious.
"If an e-mail or Web site claims to represent
some large, well known institution, then is it clearly associated with
them? For example, if an e-mail claims to be on behalf of the American
Cancer Society, does the return address reflect that? Most of the large
institutions now have Web sites and their own domain names. Likewise,
if you see a Web page that claims to speak on behalf of the ACS, is it
hosted as part of ACS's Web domain (in this case: www.cancer.org)? If
instead it is hosted by a free service, then watch out, because it probably
isn't from whom it claims to be.
"Does the e-mail claim that it is being 'tracked?'
This is a sure sign of a hoax since e-mail cannot be reliably tracked."
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