I Did A Little Research

Warning: This is an extremely long post. Read at your own peril!

The seeming explosion of technological advances in recent years has made the dissemination of information as simple as the click of a button. We can forward an email, send a tweet, post to a Facebook wall or a blog with very little effort. I find that I often receive emails warning me of new crime tactics, get rich quick schemes, lost children, and outrage over today’s politics. It can be very difficult to sort out what is actually true, what I wish were true, and what is blatantly false. Luckily, the folks who run the website Snopes.com have made it their job to do all the research, and I can benefit from their knowledge. I’ve spent some time perusing their website and wanted to share my findings.

The rumors I have always been most exposed to are the get rich quick/get something for nothing schemes. A few months ago I received a telephone call which was supposedly from an employee of Walmart saying that the company values my business so much that I had been randomly chosen to receive $250 in Walmart gift cards. The catch was that I had to give my bank account information so they could charge me $1.95 for shipping the cards. I argued with the telemarketer/scammer and told him he could just deduct the cost of shipping from the card and send me a gift card for $248. He told me it didn’t work that way. Of course not, how would they drain my bank account if I didn’t give them my information! Another get rich quick email we’ve probably all received is the Microsoft email that tells us that Microsoft is testing a new email tracking system, and that if you forward this email on to everyone in your address book you will receive a check from Microsoft for at least $10,000. I received this one before I had discovered Snopes.com, and of course I sent it on because I had nothing to lose. I could possibly make $10,000 just by irritating the people in my address book. I haven’t yet received my check, and I don’t expect to, since I now know that this is a hoax. I’ve also discovered that you can’t get a free $50 gift card to Applebees or Red Robin just by forwarding an email. A good rule of thumb is that if it’s too good to be true it probably isn’t true. There’s no such thing as a free lunch and above all never give out bank account or credit card information over the phone to someone who has contacted you.

Other rumors I often receive via email are forwarded Amber Alerts for missing children saying "pass this on to everyone you know and help us find this child." I always check the validity of these emails on Snopes. Often they are outdated and the child has already been found or they are pranks being played by irresponsible teenagers with nothing better to do. They may tug at your heart strings but that doesn’t mean they are true. One I discovered recently though, that is true, is that if you go to the website LetsSayThanks.com (launched by Xerox Corporation) you can send a free personalized postcard to U.S. troops serving overseas. Feel free to send this one to all your friends and “lets all say thanks!”

Many of these myths and rumors prey on our fears. You’ve all heard the one about a tourist waking up in a bathtub of ice with a missing kidney. Fortunately, this is absolutely false. You may now all travel in peace! Also, with the concern of a Swine Flu epidemic someone is sending out an email, claiming to be from the Centers for Disease Control, which asserts that everyone over the age of 18 must go online and create an H1N1 vaccination profile (whether vaccinated or not). Unfortunately, when you click on the link provided, it activates the installation of malware which gives scammers access to your computer. Additionally, it is not true that, starting in June, Facebook will be charging $4.99 a month for use of its services. Another falsehood is that if cell phone users don’t register their numbers with the Do Not Call directory their phone numbers will be released to telemarketers. Some of these emailed rumors that cause concern may actually be true though. For example, the ingestion of hand sanitizer by children can result in alcohol poisoning if taken in large enough quantities. It just makes sense to keep this out of the reach of children, just like any other cleaning product.

Many of the myths and rumors I’ve heard revolve around gang activity. A few years ago I was in a grocery store and heard someone say that it was Gang Initiation Week and that the initiates were required to shoot a mother and child in a local Walmart. Of course this terrified me, since I was a young mother who often shopped at Walmart with my children. It turns out that rumor was not true, but it did cost me some valuable hours of sleep. Other false rumors about gang activity include, but are not limited to: prospective gang members are being initiated by killing the drivers of cars who flash their headlights at them, gangs are using bloody car seats to lure female motorists out of their vehicles, gang initiates are planning to kill thirty or more women on Halloween, and gang members are depositing a deadly mixture of LSD and strychnine on pay phone buttons.

Often when there is a natural disaster, such as the recent earthquake in Haiti, many more rumors begin to circulate. It is true that you can donate $10 to the Red Cross for earthquake relief efforts by texting the word “Haiti” to 90999. The $10 charge will show up on your phone bill and the phone companies are not pocketing half of this amount, which has also been rumored. It is true that T-mobile is allowing customers to phone Haiti without being charged international long distance rates. It is not true, however, that JetBlue and American airlines are offering free air travel to Haiti for doctors and nurses. It is not true that UPS will ship any package under 50 lbs to Haiti for free. UPS is donating a million dollars to the relief efforts though. It is also false that phone companies will donate 25 cents every time a certain text message is forwarded, or that Facebook will donate towards relief efforts every time a certain message is posted as a member’s status.

Many emails are forwarded containing rumors of a political nature. It has been rumored that everyone will have to register any guns they own on this year’s taxes and pay a $50 fee for each firearm. This isn’t true. It is an idea that was proposed in 2000 but never came to a vote. It is also not true that a federal judge has ordered President Obama to prove his eligibility for the presidency (by showing his Birth Certificate) in court on January 26, 2010. It is true, however, that in 2007 (just a few weeks before announcing his candidacy for president) Barack Obama paid $375 for 17 unpaid parking tickets he accumulated while a student at Harvard.

A fun section of the Snopes website deals with Cokelore. A section dedicated entirely to the many myths surrounding the Coca Cola company. (I read these while drinking a Pepsi!) For example, it is true that cocaine was one of the early ingredients of Coke. Also, Coca Cola was once considered anti-Semetic because they refused to do business in Israel, and they did recall an advertising poster because the artist had secretly included a risqué image in an ice cube. However, it isn’t true that a tooth will dissolve overnight in Coke, nor is it an effective contraceptive (really!), and it has never been green. Also, it will not kill you to drink Coke mixed with Mentos, or Pop Rocks, and you will not die of carbon dioxide poisoning if you drink too much. Also, Al-Queda terrorists have not poisoned one in five Coke cans with anthrax and arsenic.

If you have a bit of free time, and just want some entertaining topics to consider, search the Snopes.com website for some of their wackier gems. For example, a man transports a bull in his car, a lucky coyote travels 600 miles stuck under the bumper of a car (and lives to howl about it!), a man is killed by a cactus. Incidentally, all of these stories are true. Be sure not to miss out on the funny questions that have been asked on telephone hotlines about how to roast your Thanksgiving turkey. In conclusion, I hope that if anything has been gained by reading this long-winded diatribe that you will not believe everything you read (or hear) at first glance. Take a moment to check out the facts at Snopes.com before you forward that email or lose sleep over mere rumors. You might even find something that really interests you or makes you laugh.

***If you made it clear to this point in my post you have earned bragging rights to the title of "Amber's Most Loyal Reader!"