An e-mail circulating the net claims that McDonald’s has announced they are going to start importing most of their beef from South America. It’s a claim that’s not true, although it is true that Mickey D’s is testing the importation of small amounts of beef from Australia and New Zealand. Here’s the original e-mail: Date … Read more
An e-mail hoax is urging folks to find and delete the harmless “jdbgmgr.exe” file from their Windows-based computers. This self-induced minor lobotomy kills the Java Debugger Manager — which really is represented by a teddy bear icon — can cause certain Java applets (small programs in their own right — to act buggy. It’s not … Read more
An well-meaning email circulating on the net claims that coughing might just save your life if you’re suffering a heart attack. The science behind it is questionable, and some sources say it could actually kill you. Here’s the original e-mail: Date Captured: 3/8/2002 THIS IS NOT A JOKE – It may help you to save … Read more
An e-mail promising free Applebees gift certificates for forwarding it to your friends is a hoax. The e-mail is similar in spirit and syntax to a Cracker Barrel hoax that’s also circulating. And like that piece, the only thing this bit of annoying net-flotsam is good for is annoying your friends. Here’s the e-mail: Date … Read more
They’re out there. Lurking in the shadows. Waiting to strike at a moments notice. They’re renegade medical students, and they’re hell bent on stealing your kidneys and selling them on the blackmarket! Or not. The infamous kidney thieves are a classic urban legend, transported on to the net and given new life in the 21st … Read more
An scare e-mail claiming that gang members are placing a deadly LSD/strychnine combination on public telephones shows no signs of being true. In 1998 a rumor spread around the Net that drug addicts were placing HIV-contaminated needles in phone booths and that people were getting infected with the virus as they dug out their change. … Read more
Forget the killer tomatos, the bananas are the ones you need to look out for. See they’ve already wiped out the monkey population in Costa Rica, and have landed advance troops in major North American cities. Run for your lives! Or not. You see, the “necrotizing fasciitis” infected bananas don’t exist. And now, two years … Read more
They lurk, deep beneath your hair, nesting close to your scalp, waiting patiently to hatch and wreak destruction upon the landscape of your head. No, they’re not head lice. Or fleas. Or ticks. They’re spiders … swarming, nasty, black spiders and they’re going to devour your skull! Or not. The ‘bugs in the hair-do’ urban … Read more
Mutant chickens are running amok in the fast food industry! In an effort to save costs, Kentucky Fried Chicken ditched its full name, switched to KFC and began using genetically engineer quasi chickens that taste like chicken, but are kept alive through dubious means. Unfortunately for chickens everywhere, this is a hoax. I first debunked … Read more
It’s been around on the net for years — AOL and Intel are merging, and they want to give you lots of money for forwarding their e-mail. Actually, they want Microsoft to give you lots of money. No, actually, it’s Microsoft that’s urging the forwarding, and Bill Gates is funding the exercise in personal, exponential … Read more