Snopes - The Online Mythbusters
July 7, 2008 by Jason Bean
Filed under Reference, Software & Online Apps
I recently received an email from my mom that had what appeared to be some interesting tips and features available on your cell phone to help you in some “emergency” situations. I decided it was probably a good post but did a quick search to see who to give the original credit for if it existed.
When I got my Google results back the first site listed was Snopes.com. I immediately knew something probably wasn’t correct in the email and checked it out. It turns out the “features” in the email did exist to some degree, but only for certain models and in one case pretty much only overseas.
If you’re not familiar with Snopes, you should really add it to your favorites list and share with friends. Before you decide to forward those e-mails to all your address books, just do a quick search on Snopes of the subject line or some other unique component of the email and see if anything pops up.
I’ve yet to put in a search that didn’t get a result that ended up being a flag to say the email was a hoax or something.
If you’re not aware, forwarding emails like that is a prime harvest option for spammers to collect our email addresses and continue sending you more junk mail to flood your Inbox.
Before you hit SEND, go SEARCH SNOPES!
I ran across the SNOPES website many years ago and have used it repeatedly. I have found doing a Reply to All on those emails that are wrong or misleading with a comment that the email material is wrong or misleading with a link to the SNOPES website for the subject has helped cut down on those emails.
Alan I do the exact same thing when I get those e-mails. Now if I can just get them to stop sending me the stupid ones too.
On Wed. I received an e-mail from what appeared to be UPS. I knew the information stated that I had sent a package on July 1 via UPS was inaccurate. This morning (Thur., July24, 2008) I called the UPS 800 number. They informed me that a third party was sending this e-mail and the attachment contained a virus. I haven’t found anything on Snopes about this. Perhaps I didn’t look in the right place or you are not aware of this UPS message with a virus. Thank you for all you do.D
Watch all 6 seasons of Mythbusters online:
http://watchmythbustersonline.net/
I frequently check snopes for verification of political emails, but I seldom find any mention for the emails that dare to chastise the Democrats or Obama’s administration other than the ridiculous ones. I often get numerous emails with the same or similar content, or I hear about them from others, but am unable to find them mentioned at snopes.com. Is there another website that I could also check for verification of political facts?