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March 2002• Vol.13 Issue 3 Page(s) 92-95 in print issue
To Believe Or Not To Believe E-mail That’s Too Good, Too Weird To Be True

Jump to first occurrence of: [HOW] [WORKS]

Have you seen the “last photo” from the World Trade Center just before the terrorist attack on Sept. 11? How about the one of the giant mutant cat of Ontario, Canada? Have you received an e-mail warning of a virus with seemingly supernatural powers to destroy your computer?

The Internet has become a source of legitimate information that is unparalleled in history. An untold number of news sites exist for every topic imaginable. Long-established paper-based news and broadcast sources, such as The New York Times and ABC, have been joined by reliable Internet-based outlets, such as Nando Media, which started in 1994.

Unfortunately, however, the Internet has also become a source of disinformation unparalleled in history. Anyone with an e-mail account or Web page and an antisocial streak can say anything he or she wants and pass it off as truth.

This disinformation won’t damage a computer system in the same way a virus does, but it wastes your time and uses up computer resources. These illegitimate messages fill inboxes and saturate e-mail servers. Suppose it takes one minute each day to read and delete an e-mail hoax. Multiple that by the number of people on the Internet, figure in their loss of productivity, and you reach a number in the millions of dollars.

Hoaxes’ No. 1 Enemy

Workers at the Computer Incident Advisory Capability agency, which is in charge of keeping the U.S. Department of Energy secure from computer threats, say they spend more time debunking hoaxes than they spend addressing viruses and other malicious computer code. Some virus hoaxes make daunting claims; the A.I.D.S. VIRUS hoax claimed the virus could even infect your speakers and keyboard (impossible, of course). Virus hoaxes, like other hoaxes, waste time and resources. They also create a boy-who-cried-wolf syndrome among computer users, who then ignore legitimate virus threats.

Hoaxes have been used to pass on viruses, further complicating the situation. The AOL4FREE “virus” was originally a hoax. A virus writer then attached a Trojan horse (a malicious program that falsely appears to be a useful application, such as a game or a utility, that slips into a system unnoticed; it acts like a virus but doesn’t replicate itself) to the hoax virus warning, making it a real threat.

There are a few signs to look for when you receive an e-mail message with dubious information. Beware of these justifications: I read it on the Internet; it actually happened to a friend of a friend of mine; it was in the (insert name of legitimate news outlet, such as The New York Times or Associated Press, here), so it must be true; or a government agency, such as the FCC (Federal Communications Commission), issued the warning.

If you reply to an e-mail message and get an automated response saying the recipient’s mailbox is full or the recipient is not accepting mail, it’s another good tip-off the source is shaky at best.

The Delete button is your best friend when you run across information obtained through the Internet that seems too good or weird to be true. But if your interest is piqued, you may want to know the rest of the story when you read an e-mail that starts, “This guy my cousin knows sent this to me. . . .”

For the purposes of this article we use these definitions: urban legends are popularly believed narratives, typically but not always false; hoaxes are false and deliberately deceptive misinformation; rumors are anecdotal claims, which may be true, false, or in between. For simplicity we will use the term “legend,” except where noted, as a catchall term.

The Right Resources

Dozens of Internet-based resources are dedicated to legends, but the ones we list here are the only ones you should need to debunk or affirm the information you receive.

The AFU newsgroup (alt.folklore .urban) is the mother lode of legend information and is referred to by most of the Web sites listed below. People who post to this newsgroup appear to be the most skeptical bunch on the Internet. Entries often go into great detail about particular legends, such as a history of the classic alligators-in-sewers tale. You’ll also find information about other ways to sift fact from fiction.

The AFU & Urban Legends Archive (http://www.urbanlegends.com/) has content divided into 23 sections, including tales about animals, such as a tarantula-bearing cactus, and science (it turns out it is possible, under very specific conditions, to pick up an AM radio station with your dental fillings). A Google-powered search engine lets you locate specific legends. You can search the AFU newsgroup archive by topic here. This site is the most referred to by other sites and the top source for researching urban legends.

The Truth Or Fiction site publishes true and false legends, with labels telling you which are which.

Beneath the homely facade of Snopes.com’s The Urban Legends Reference Pages (http://www.snopes2.com/), there’s a wealth of entertaining information about legends. It’s best to use the search function or click through to the site map and go from there. Snopes addresses legends in a more general manner than sites focused solely on legends passed through e-mail. Sample material from the site includes the erroneous “facts” that poinsettia plants are highly poisonous and assassinated presidents John F. Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln share an amazing number of characteristics.

A self-described amateur folklorist interested in urban legends runs The Urban Legends Research Centre (http://www.ulrc.com.au/). The site focuses on answering visitors’ questions and seeks to address legends in depth rather than just listing legends with short explanations. With this approach, there are far fewer legends than at some of the other sites we visited, but there’s a payoff in more information. For example, to debunk the rumor Jewish people were warned about the Sept. 11 attacks, the site shows the content of the e-mail and contains a nearly 800-word essay with links to other media that published information about the rumor. This site isn’t the best for identifying hoaxes, but it’s the best place to look for expanded information.

About.com’s Urban Legends And Folklore (http://urbanlegends.miningco.com/) features frequent updates and a slick design. The In The Spotlight section is a roundup of the more popular legends currently making the rounds. For example, the site contains nearly 30 legends related to the Sept. 11 attacks. The Essentials Section comprises an A-Z index of all known legends and an Urban Legends Top 25. This site also has links to sources, so you can do your own debunking.

The TruthorFiction.com site (http://www.truthorfiction.com/) is different from the others; it publishes true and false legends together, with labels denoting which are which. Look for labels, such as Fiction, Truth, Outdated, and Disputed, among others. The main page provides news about the latest legends and virus warnings. Archived information is divided into 22 categories, including Animals, Attack On America, Food And Drink, Government, Insects And Reptiles, Internet And Computers, Medical, Missing Persons, Prayer Requests, and Viruses.

Listing the true and false material together lets you explore a topic at a glance. For example, in the Attack On America section, you learn a golden retriever guide dog named Daisy didn’t save 967 people in the World Trade Center. However, Roselle, a guide dog, led a 51-year-old man named Michael Hingson to safety; Hingson was on the 78th floor of the first tower to be hit.

Viruses

A virus hoax that gets forwarded to e-mail inboxes around the world, ironically, works like a virus by clogging inboxes and servers. Don’t forward a virus warning. Instead, watch established news outlets for information about the virus and check the sites below.

The opinionated authors at Vmyths.com (http://vmyths.com/) tout their independence from antivirus manufacturers. Their stated goal is “the eradication of computer virus hysteria.” To that end, the site has an alphabetized list of virus hoaxes and articles about hoaxes and the virus scene in general. Also on the site are historical articles, related links, a news site that lists current threats and hoaxes, a section for corrections when they make a mistake, a list of suggestions to software companies, and opinion columns on virus threats and computer security in general.

F-Secure (http://www.datafellows.com/virus-info/hoax) makes antivirus and encryption software, as well as security products for network and handheld devices. This is the most comprehensive list of known virus hoaxes that we found. You can look up hoaxes alphabetically or through a search function. The site also has up-to-date information about current chain letters and nonvirus hoaxes. A list of the 50 latest hoaxes shows you what’s currently making the rounds.

McAfee.com’s (http://www.mcafee.com/) Virus Information Library lists about 80 current virus hoaxes. Check the list when you receive a warning about a virus. If the name of the alleged virus is there, click it to see the text of the hoax and compare it to the text of the e-mail you received.

Symantec’s Security Response (http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/hoax.html) site lists about 130 virus and other hoaxes so you can compare them to what you have received. Many entries include a short commentary providing background on the hoax.

About.com’s Antivirus Software site (http://antivirus.about.com/) is similar to antivirus software manufacturers’ sites. It shows the viruses with the text of the e-mail warning so you can compare the hoax text to what you received.

We all like a good yarn, and who can resist helping a lost child? Or warning a co-worker of a new virus? Just don’t suspend your disbelief. When it comes to information passed over the Internet, resist the urge to click Forward; first check the resources in this article.

by Tom Hancock

Legends We Have Known

We’ve listed some of the more common urban legends, hoaxes, and rumors currently clogging the Internet. There are usually several variations on any single legend, especially for virus hoaxes.

The Rocket Car. Urban Legend: Law-enforcement agents find a car embedded in a cliff at the end of a long straight road somewhere in the desert. It turns out the owner of the car had attached solid jet-fuel rockets to it, which when lit sent the car down the road at 250 to 300 miles per hour. There’s an interesting sidelight to this one: a man who claims to have actually done something like this, thus presumably giving rise to the legend, describes in technical detail how it was (allegedly) done. See the article at http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.08/rocketcar.html.

Death & (E-mail) Taxes. Rumor: This well-written e-mail rumor originated in May 1999 and continues to proliferate. The U.S. Postal Service is allegedly proposing to bulk up its revenues by placing a 5-cent tax on each e-mail you send. “Bill 602P” (federal legislative bills aren’t numbered that way) “would permit the Federal Govt to charge a 5 cent surcharge on every e-mail delivered, by billing Internet Service Providers at source.” For information about real legislative bills, see Thomas Legislative Information On The Internet (http://thomas.loc.gov/), a Web site sponsored by the Library Of Congress.

The Sept. 11 Attacks. Urban Legends, Hoaxes, and Rumors: Dozens of tales of bizarre “facts” are making the rounds after the terrorist attacks. Here are a few prevalent hoaxes: a picture from a camera found at the site showing a tourist on top of the Trade Center just before the airliner hit; 16th century French astrologer Nostradamus predicted the attacks; a picture in which the face of Satan appears in the smoke from the attack; some 4,000 Jewish people who worked at the Trade Center were warned in advance of the attack and stayed home from work; and many words and names attached to the attack add up to the number 11. The Klingerman Virus hoax plays on fears generated by the attacks; it says large blue envelopes containing an unknown virus are being sent out via regular mail.

Missing Child Alerts. Rumor: Many e-mails have circulated, with similar language, in which recipients are urged to forward the plea to as many people as possible to find a missing child. Variations include pleas to help a sick child by forwarding an e-mail message. These messages play on the recipient’s desire to help people in need. Names of a couple of recent “missing” children and their statuses include Kelsey Brooke Jones, a real child who went missing for approximately two hours on Oct. 11, 1999, but was then found, and Penny Brown, who has never been identified in news reports or missing person databases. Versions of this e-mail began in Calgary, Canada; Austin, Texas; and Sydney, Australia. You can check the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at http://www.missingkids.org/ for reliable information.

Keep The Good Times Rolling. Virus Hoax: This is the granddaddy of virus hoaxes. Many subsequent hoax writers used material from Good Times as the basis of their efforts. The hoax’s creators make the usual claims the virus will “destroy” the user’s hard drive. Technical-sounding terminology claims the user’s processor will be at risk by being placed in an “nth-complexity infinite binary loop,” which sounds serious but is fanciful. The hoax creators invoke the authority of the FCC (Federal Communication Commission) to add credence to their tale.

E-mail Your Way To Riches. Hoax: Creators of these get-rich-quick schemes want you to believe that you can make money simply by forwarding an e-mail. An example is the Microsoft/AOL Merger hoax. The e-mail, which typically came from “a friend of a friend,” says you can help the newly merged company (why haven’t we heard of this on the news?) by participating in an e-mail beta test. Your payoff comes in pyramid-scheme fashion: “For every person that you forward this e-mail to, Microsoft will pay you $5.00, for every person that you sent it to that forwards it on, Microsoft will pay you $3.00, and for every third person that receives it, you will be paid $1.00.” Variations on this hoax are legion and use other corporations as enticement, including Abercrombie & Fitch, Bath and Body Works, The Gap, Honda, Nokia, and Old Navy. There is no way to track the forwarding of e-mails as they are sent.

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