Hoaxes, Urban Legends, and Virus Warnings
The Internet is a marvelous communication facilitator in many ways.  It is the first communication medium in human history that allows any given person to get a message out to every other person in the entire world who is a member of that community (i.e., who has a computer hooked up to the system).  Every node on the World Wide Web can, in theory anyway, reach every other one.

That's both the good news and the bad news.  It means that useful information can be made instantly available worldwide.  It also means that every crackpot can spew forth the most ridiculous garbage.  Consequently, the WWW is rife with hoaxes and misinformation.

Here are several sites which may help.  When you get something that seems fishy, look here and see if it has been entered in these databases of hoaxes and urban legends.

Hoaxes and Urban Legends

 

The San Fernando Valley Folklore Society's Urban Legends Reference Pages
The AFU and Urban Legends Archive
Don't Spread That Hoax!
HoakKill

HoaxBusters

Email Virus Warnings

Here I'd rather be safe than sorry.  They may be hoaxes, they may not.  But do check a warning before you send it on.  Here is an excellent page maintained by our computer support folks in the School of Education.

Email Virus Safety Precautions

And here's another useful page:

VMyths


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