Hoaxes On The Internet

The way that you can tell that you've been on the Internet for a while is that you've at least seen or heard of most of these, highlighted today by Yahoo:  The Top 25 Web Hoaxes.

 

Some old favorites:

 

2. Sick Kid Needs Your Help (1989)

4. Five-Cent E-Mail Tax (1999)

5. Nigerian 419 E-Mail Scam (2000)

20. Rand's 1954 Home Computer (2004)

21. Microsoft Buys Catholic Church (1994)

Funny how things change so much, yet so little in Internet culture.  In some variety, I still see a lot of these available on the Internet and in my email - some daily.  Do yourselves a favor, folks, seriously:  check Snopes.com before you send that email explaining how Bill Gates is giving away money for just sending an email.  Snopes is a good resource, and is conveniently located on my sidebar.  Oldsters will remember the old Usenet group rec.folklore.urban - from which Snopes was born.  These guys know their stuff and have been writing about Internet and other urban folklore, or urban legends, for years.

Take a look.  I tend to do that before I believe anything that I read on the Internet.