BFTP: Checking hoaxes
Saturday, March 30, 2013 at 06:44AM A weekend Blue Skunk "feature" will be a revision of an old post. I'm calling this BFTP: Blast from the Past. Original post March 31, 2008. See also my article The Hoax on You.
I really want most urban legends to be true. - from My Biases
They told me I was gullible... and I believed them.- from Doug's t-shirt says
Monday is April Fool's Day. A great time to pass along a good urban myth or two - or more likely, receive them from one's colleagues.
Where do you head first to check out whether that long circulated story about cookie recipes, Kentucky Fried Rat or a tourist photo taken from the top of the World Trade Center dated 9/11 has any basis in reality? And more importantly, do you teach or kids and staff to verify the accuracy of those amazing factoids received by e-mail?
These are my standby sites to check hoaxes
- Snopes - the granddaddy of urban legend checkers. Wide scope and good search engine. Very current.
- Truth or Fiction - Concentrates on information spread via e-mail.
- Hoaxbusters. (U.S. Department of Energy) Good site if you believe the government can be trusted. Oops, no longer associated with the DOE. Retired in 2017.)
Going to keep this short. I need to send a box of Neiman-Marcus cookies to a terminally ill boy and get my mail to see if that check from my Nigerian partner has come yet. Remember not to put your PIN number in backwards or the police will be summoned and that cell phone use causes Alzheimer's.
Really.
Phone scams - commercial source with good information
Reader Comments (2)
Doug, the hoaxbusters site links to hoaxbusters.org, and announces that the govt site no longer exists. At least they plainly display that (before they ask for money to support their site)
Hi Susie,
Thanks for pointing this out to me. When I wrote the original post the CIAC site was still in operation. I don't know anything about this new, no affiliated site and will amend my original post. Thanks for the head's up!
Doug