Email hoaxes really annoy me.
Are you like me?
Does Ron send you "Too good to be true" offers?
Well, they are too good to be true.
But they're just good enough to be hoaxes.
Whenever I get an email from Ron, I visit the following web sites:
CIAC Internet Hoaxes
Computer Virus Myths home page
Current Urban Legends
Don't Spread that Hoax!
http://www.snopes.com/
Urban Legends Search Engine
The Urban Legend Combat Kit
Museum of Hoaxes

I can always find mention of it on most of these sites.


Sure signs of an email hoax

It asks you to forward itself to everyone you know.

It offers something for nothing.

It references "My brother's girlfriend's uncle" or similar distant connection.

It says "This is legal."

It says "I asked a lawyer and he says "This is legal"".

It refers to a company even you've heard of.

It is full of other people's email addresses.  The last one Ron sent had 78 email addresses in it.

It says "It was on the news" or "I saw it on TV".

It mentions a dying child.


Why do hoaxes exist?

Some people create them as a challenge, to see how far they will travel.  The ultimate reward is seeing one of the pretty faces on CNN mention it.

To collect email addresses.  Every time someone like Ron forwards a hoax he adds about 50 valid email addresses to it.  Eventually someone will send the hoax to a spammer who will extract the addresses and send junk email to them.

Why do teenagers exist?