Swiffer Wet Jet poisons dogs. Snakehead fish can walk on land and eat small children. Microsoft will pay $400 if you forward a specific email to twenty people. Starbucks refuses to support US troops. Somebody wants to transfer $4.5 million to your personal account. Do any of these email stories sound familiar? Do you receive photos in your mailbox? Do you immediately forward them to your friends?
As compelling as these silly stories are, they’re all fiction. If you want to you could start a hoax right now and watch it travel all over the Internet because some naive readers believe them, and then forward them. Let’s start one. New photos of Champ the Lake Champlain Monster are found to be real… real what, real spam. If you are aware that these are myths and hoaxes then they can be fun to read. But sadly, most readers actually believe these email hoaxes and this causes damage to legitimate manufacturers or companies and blemishes people’s good names. Don’t get suckered by these hoax emails just delete them after you had a good laugh.
A Hoax guide to email.
• Fake Photos (Sharks eating helicopters, monster cats). Photos are easy to manipulate with a computer and about $100.00 worth of software.
• Chain Letters (threats, requests, promises of money) The only money you will see is yours leaving your bank account.
• Mythical Stories, (public warnings, shocking narratives, outlandish claims). Public Healthcare will bankrupt us all. Ok that might be true.
• Outright Scams (“phishing” and phone schemes attempting to access your finances). Once they have you hooked they will phish you right out of all your money.
Identifying a hoax?
a) Be skeptical of all email sent from people you do not know.
b) Resist the urge to click the link or forward the message.
c) Do your homework and confirm the message.
d) Tell your friends if they sent you a hoax email.
e) For emails that ask you to confirm your bank or ebay identify: never respond or click the link.
What to do if you been hoax or phished?
a) US Federal Trade Commission
b) Local Police department
How do you stop the hoaxes and scams? Simply stop sending them to your friends, tell your friends about scam emails that you received. Report it to the authorities.
