Is it True or is it a Hoax?
By kelly60
@kelly60 (4546)
United States
April 28, 2007 6:29am CST
I see a lot of things going around the internet, whether in my email or even here on myLot regarding things like boycotting gas stations to lower prices, or virus allerts, and all kinds of other things. Maybe some of you even remember the one that has been passed around through the email supposedly from Bill Gates, promising money to everyone who forwarded the email.
Have you ever wondered whether these things were true or if they were hoaxes? There is a site where you can find out the answer. Search Snopes to find out whether or not you are looking at a hoax or something worth taking seriously before forwarding it on.
http://www.snopes.com/
They have some great information, not only on whether or not it is a scam, but can also tell you where and when it originated and all kinds of interesting information about many of these, so take a look and let me know what you think about Snopes.
3 people like this
4 responses
@beaniefanatic13 (5068)
• Grand Junction, Colorado
3 May 07
Absolutely a wonderful site. Full of lots of useful information. So many emails that float around are hoaxes or have lost something from being forwarded or added as the case may be in a lot of them.
I just started a discussion on the gas one tonight using the snopes website as a reference and also from my own experience.
some of the ones that I see I can't even believe that people could be that gullible to believe them. They are so far fetched that you would think that someone with even half a brain wouldn't be sucked in but that's not the case.
Thanks for bringing up this discussion. Let's hope that many more people see it and bookmark this address so that they don't start another discussion on a bogus hoax. Great discussion! :)
@kelly60 (4546)
• United States
26 May 07
You know that the discussions and the hoaxes will keep coming though. You probably get just as many in your email as I do, and it does not matter how ridiculous they are, people will continue to believe them, and continue to forward them.
Sadly, they all boycotted the gas as the email told them to do and the very next day the gas prices (at least here) went up ten cents, and have been climbing ever since. I wonder how silly they feel for believing it now.
@freak369 (5112)
• United States
28 Apr 07
That is one of the best sites around to debunk hoaxes and fake emails. Even when people post stuff here about MLM emails and scams and I point out the website to them, some just refuse to believe it. You can lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink :]
1 person likes this
@villageanne (8553)
• United States
29 Apr 07
LOL I remember when I first got a computer and got online, I believed everthing that came into my email box. LOL Well I have gotten smarter since them or at least I think I have. I dont believe most of the things that come into my email box. I do not forward this stuff on to others either. I have used snoop.com many times in the past. If everyone would check the information out before they spamed all the address in their address book, it would save alot of time sorting out email. LOL Thanks for sharing this with those who do not know about it.
@kelly60 (4546)
• United States
26 May 07
The worst part is that you just cannot get through to some people. It does not matter how many times you tell some of them, they forward it to you anyway without checking because they "didn't want to take a chance that this virus was for real" or some such thing. I keep telling them to either check it out or just do not worry about me and let me take my own chances because I know that I will get this same warning from several other people who have also been asked not to send them on without checking to see if they are true.
