Urban Legends and Hoaxes - Comments Page 1

Good luck in this neverending battle! I am a self confessed legend killer myself... one day we will have a generation of users around the world where the majority of them are educated in this regard... one day ;-)

Bob--recently my nephew told me that "snopes" occassionally verifies as true a false rumor with the caveat that "it keeps us on our toes". Have you ever heard that they do that? I just found their site and was glad to have found a "reality check" place to go to---then his comment knocked my edge off. Appreicate your comments. Thanks, and like yor letter!!! Paul

EDITOR'S NOTE: That sounds ridiculous to me... it would destroy their credibility entirely. I've used Snopes a lot for many years, and I've never seen anything like that. Sounds like another urban legend for Snopes to debunk!

Gee, and my best friends friend SWORE that this stuff was true! My husband and myself are dedicated mythbusters, alot are forwarded by friends who ought to know better than to send them to us lol. And Daniel is dreaming ;-)

Thanks Bob! -- I get one of these hoaxes about once a week or so. Sometimes when I point out its a hoax, the sender is offended. Two this week were fake virus warnings and both were from people I had already explained about this to. Ah well... Keep up the good work - this may help...

Some of these hoax emails are so laughable that I wonder why people are so stupid to believe them. I have had these emails forwarded to me by well educated professionals. I usually return the email with a note saying Google it before sending it to me. Oh! For the life of a hoax and spam free inbox.

My personal favorite is http://www.truthorfiction.com

People who send you unsolicited email are called spammers. People who try to get personal and private information from you are call phishers. What term do we apply to the people who send us false urban legends? (be nice)

Thanks for the service you provide. I have recieved insight and understanding on many subjects in my computer education from you.

I am a librarian and I never cease wondering why so many people, university education notwithstanding, have such an urge to believe the strangest things, which upon closer investigation are simply fiction, fantasy, or right out lies. Some persons get really angry with me when I point them to critical sites, like the ones you mention, instead of feeding their illusions. I warmly recommend this site:

http://skepdic.com/

I believe the same holds true for religious articles, prayers, poems, words of wisdom etc. I refuse to be "guilted" into "PLEASE PASS THIS ON TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW OR CARE ABOUT" in the name of religion. Religion is a very personal issue and to lay a guilt trip on someone for not forwarding the tenth prayer you've received for the day is ludicrous. This is not "What Jesus would do!"

You don't mention breakthechain.org. This is sometimes better than all others, almost as good as snopes has become!

Like many of you who have commented, I too am a self professed hoax killer. I have 5 (now 6...thanks for The Skeptics Dictionary site) sites I check out before sending stuff on. I will usually reply back to a sender with at least 2 links concerning the validity of an e-mail. I have yet to have anyone get angry with me for this. The problem I have is the same people send me stuff without checking them out first. How do we get people to check before sending?

EDITOR'S NOTE: I'm convinced we need some kind of electro-shock feedback mechanism that will deliver a high voltage "correction" when someone forwards a silly email. If the shock gets stronger each time, eventually the user will be conditioned to behave, or... disappear into a pile of ash. :-)