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(ô¿ô) Look for the following clues to spot a Hoax, Scam, or Urban Legend:
- The message urges you to forward it to everyone you know or everyone in your address book. This is your number one clue!
- The message appeals to your emotions instead of just informing you. Look for lots of Exclamations!!! and **punctuations** and CAPITAL LETTERS.
- The message sounds too good to be true. Don’t fall for the “You won our Lottery” scam or help me claim a large sum of money scam. This is also done over the phone.
- The message is very urgent, but you never heard about it in other venues such as TV, Radio, or Newspaper. IE: Electrical Hazards or House Fires caused by plugin air fresheners.
- The message offers you something for FREE. There is always a catch.
- Look for the phrases “This is not a hoax.” or “This is not an urban legend” or “There is no catch”.
- The message claims something bad will happen to you if you do not forward or act on the message. And vice versa, if you do act on the message something great will happen. This is typical in chain letters. Just delete them. Nothing bad will happen.
- The message claims to fix an issue; be it computer related or even medical related. This one is popular with Virus hoaxes.
- Do not click on any links in the message! Verify the message with the sender or online via google or at a Hoax website (see links below).
- Some of these messages will look and sound very authentic. They will try everything they can to convince you the message is real. Be skeptical.
Search Snopes.com for hoaxes, urban legends, old wives’ tales, common fallacies, misinformation, strange news, rumors, and even celebrity gossip.
How Stuff Works - Urban Legends
Urban Legends and Folklore at About.com
Top 25 Urban Legends
How to avoid an email Hoax?
List of Fake Give Aways and Other Riches
Now forward this post to everyone you know or in the next 24 hours something very terrible will happen… I might not get any readers…
A very detailed list. Thanks. I actually laughed at some of them, because it’s so obvious, sometimes I’ve still fallen for it.
This is a great list. And it’s largely true. If you just open your eyes, you can spot these before you even read them.
I never know that these fresheners could create the environment which could help the fire to increase. There are many kind of products available in the market and all of us uses these products. How to cure?
There are many fresheners available in the market, We never know which one is better and which one is not better in the security perspective. But let us have a campaign so tell the people about the reality of these fresheners.