An hoax e-mail circulating since well before the November 2004 elections claims that congressmen sweet pension deal means they don’t have to pay into Social Security. Here’s the hoax I collected back before the election (and have only just now[…]
Read moreCategory: Hoax Debunkings
Budweiser Frogs Threaten Virus Havoc
An old e-mail hoax featuring the Budweiser Frogs has recently re-surfaced with a slightly re-tooled message of digital destruction. The original version of the e-mail, which I last remember seeing when the Budweiser Frogs were still popular (about 1999) just[…]
Read moreDowntrodden Debbie Shwartz Hoax Claims AOL Will Give Her Money for E-mail
A tragedy-filled, tear-jerking e-mail claims you’re a heartless if you don’t forward an e-mail that will net a distraught mother .12 cents from AOL for every person you send it to. But if you do forward it, what you’ll be[…]
Read more“Life Is Beautiful” Virus is a Hoax
An e-mail that claims that life won’t be beautiful if you unleash a virus hidden in a Power Point attachment is a hoax. The hoax says the name of this nefarious hoax is “Life is Beautiful” and claims it will[…]
Read moreVirus Hoaxer Claims ‘It Takes Guts to Say Jesus’
Jesus wants your soul. He also wants your hard drive. Or at least that’s what the writer of the “It Take Guts to Say Jesus” virus hoax would have readers believe. This hoax is ancient — I got my first[…]
Read moreFree Perfume Samples Kill Women Victims
Drawing on remembered fear of the anthrax scare, an e-mail hoax is alleging that seven women have died after inhaling few perfume samples they received in the mail. I wrote the original debunking on 12/16, but updated it on 10/24[…]
Read moreRat Urine on Soda Can Kills Store Clerk
In 1999/2000, an e-mail hoax surfaced claiming that a man in Hawaii died after being exposed to rat urine in the back room of a supermarket. Although it offered good advice — always wipe off your soda can before drinking[…]
Read moreBritish Airways Promises Free Tickets for Forwarded E-mail
SARS has taken a heavy toll, both in terms of human life and economic prosperity. A new e-mail hoax plays off of that malady, combining it with malease over the Iraq War in a play to get people to forward[…]
Read moreIsraeli Satellite Captures Columbia’s Destruction on Film
An e-mail allegding that an Israeli satellite took pictures of the orbiter Columbia as it exploded during re-entry is a hoax. In reality, the pictures depict a scene from the opening of the movie Armageddon, in which the shuttle is[…]
Read moreCustomers Pricked by HIV Needles at Gas Pump
What’s the one thing that can get motorists’ minds off the sting of high gas prices? That’s right — the Attack of the Killer HIV Needle! An email that I first saw in the Summer of 2000 alleges that some[…]
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