How to Check out a Hoax
If you have an email address, chances are you have received more than one email about a story that seemed just a little too good to be true. Some of these hoaxes promise you a big payout from Microsoft or some other company just for filling out a simple form, while others tell of horrible stories such as the proliferation of bandits who will steal your kidney and leave you in a bathtub of ice. While some of these may be harmless in nature, others contain malicious viruses bent on stealing data from your hard drive if links are clicked upon.
If you need to learn how to check out a hoax, here are some easy to follow tips:
Start with Snopes.com - Snopes.com is a website dedicated to debunking myths and hoaxes of all kinds. They have a tremendous database of hoax emails and stories and are fairly quick to post information about hoaxes. Oftentimes, by the time you have received an email that could be a hoax, Snopes.com has already posted info about it.
Google it-If you can’t find anything on Snopes, then try Googling the info contained in the email. If it is TRUE, you can usually find a news story that will corroborate the information. If it is not, then the hoax may be posted somewhere as well. If nothing turns up after a thorough Google search, it’s time to move on to the next tip.
See if it passes the TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE test - In the tips of how to check out a hoax, we would be remiss if we didn’t include simply using your instincts. If the email you have received contains info that promises money or free items just for forwarding the email or filling out a simple form, it is probably a hoax. Companies don’t just randomly make incredible offers as doing so would see them quickly go broke. The fact is, everyone would love to believe that a huge corporation is about to give them a huge payday for doing next to nothing. This hope against logic is what keeps many of these hoaxes alive even to this day. The Microsoft/Bill Gates one has been debunked for years, yet it continues to show up in inboxes on a regular basis. If the info seems incredibly far fetched or too good to be true, it probably is. Delete it and move on.
Consider where the info came from - If you receive an email from a trusted friend who has a good reputation of only passing along good info, you might want put a little more credence into the info contained in an email. If, on the other hand, the info comes to you from someone whom you don’t know very well or even at all, then you should definitely be suspect. Many people pass along forwarded emails to everyone in their email list and these mass forwards are a definite sign the email may be a hoax.
The bottom line is, when in doubt, check it out. If you are asked to click on a link or do ANYTHING at all based on the info you get in an email, make 100% certain that the email is NOT a hoax first. If you can’t corroborate the info, then simply don’t take any action. As we said, some hoaxes are just harmless stories, but others can do you and your computer major harm.
