26. Hoaxes in E-mail

If you haven't received a hoax or urban legend in your email yet, you will.

These emails may appeal for your sympathy. They may seek to frighten you. They may tend to cause paranoia. They may warn of computer viruses or caution you to beware of a particular company. They may speak of a circle of friends.

Three things are almost always true about these e-mails.

1. To the untrained eye, they all appear to be real and genuine.

2. They will ask you to forward the e-mail to everyone in your mailbox.

3. They are FALSE. (99.99% of the time.)

If you receive one of these e-mails, please resist the temptation to send it along to everyone you know. Many times, e-mails like this are generated and sent out in order to crash an internet service provider. Often, they are sent out in order that the sender can see how long it takes his hoax e-mail to come back.

For new users, the temptation to respond to these e-mails is great. More experienced users will recognize them in a heartbeat.

If you receive one of these hoax e-mails, you have four choices.

1. You can do what the e-mail asks, and forward it to everyone in your mailbox, thus taking up more server time and perpetuating the hoax.

2. You can simply delete it, and do nothing else.

3. You can inform the sender that it is a hoax, and tell him/her that you do not wish to receive any more hoaxes in your mailbox.

4. You can follow the suggestion in #3 above, and also forward the e-mail to hoaxkill@hoaxkill.com . By doing this, Hoaxkill's computer program will send an e-mail to each of the listed recipients of the hoax, and inform them that they have received a hoax. That e-mail will not include your e-mail address, so your identity will not be revealed.

Please help stop internet hoaxes!

The following websites will help you decide which e-mails are hoaxes. They have archived almost all of the current and past hoaxes and urban legends that have been circulating around the internet since it's inception. Check them out.