Is That EMail You Got Really True, Or A Hoax?

If you haven't gotten one of these, consider yourself out of the gossip loop. And, that is a good thing! These emails typically are mailed to a number of people. And, they usually will come from someone you know. The claims and general tone will follow something like...

... opening an EMail with this subject line will destroy all the data on your computer...
..."<Insert Major News Entity> verified this is true..." But, the exact date and article reference will be missing.
... <Insert Major Company> will pay you money to forward this EMail to somewhere...
... <anonymous child> really needs your money for life saving surgery...
... <for some reason> there is a lot of money in a foreign account. And, they want you to put it in your American account and you keep some of it. All you have to do is give them your banking account information...
... Anything that requires you to send money, first for free gifts, work-at-home, prizes you somehow won...
... Search your computer to find this file. If you have it, delete it immediately! It is a bad file...
...Just send a few dollars to a handful of people, and you'll soon get back a fortune...

A little common sense goes a long way. Remember these things...

Don't give out your banking account information (or any financial or personal info) in an EMail! Once they have that, your money is most likely going to go away. Once they have it, you have to go to them to get it back. Consider it gone.
If an EMail claim is vague (no exact dates), don't trust it.
If the EMail claims some reputable entity (CNN, Microsoft, etc.) verified the claim, search that web site for a valid article.
If it sounds outlandish or too-good-to-be-true, it it is time to verify it.
- Open a search engine (yahoo.com, google.com, msn.com, etc.) and search on some of the key words or phrases. Chances are, you'll either find it referenced on a legitimate site as true, or on a web site devoted to exposing hoaxes on the Internet.
Check the online hoax sites for topics similar to the one in your email.
- If you want to find some web sites listing hoaxes search for EMAIL HOAX.

I have gone ahead and located some web sites where you can check to see if that EMail is a hoax:

There are more places to look. But, these should be a great start! Remember to check those emails before forwarding them to a bunch of people in your address book.

Webdesigners... Check out this link and learn why I included it.
Spam Blocker - Help Fight Spam EMail!

Last Updated 11/25/2005