[wplug] OT -- Hoax Information Websites

[Peter Williams]

Personally, I have two different approaches to this type of situation.

One is the calm, thoughtful but forceful response that says "no, 
this is a hoax... you can look it up on this site... it's good to do that 
before forwarding these..." (repeat as necessary... some people 
just won't get it, sometimes it actually works).

The slightly more creative response is to forward back a virus 
warning of my own.  I have two saved up from past years that I 
might use.

One proclaims the dangers of the Gullibility Virus... it starts like 
any other forward, telling them to watch out for this terrible threat, 
then launches into symptoms like "readers immediately believing 
that every virus claim is true, and forwarding them on to everyone in 
their address books without checking into them."  It then includes 
the links and information on how to investigate them.

The other mail warns of a virus called Badtimes (both of these date 
from when Good Times was the latest annoyance to everyone's 
inbox).  It insists that the virus "is the worst one ever" and it will 
rewrite your hard drive... scramble any disks in a 20' range... turn 
down your refrigerator temperature so that your ice cream melts... 
mix antifreeze into your fishtank... give you dutch elm disease... 
and so forth, you get the idea.

The latter doesn't really do much in terms of education, but it still 
helps by turning irritation into ascorbic glee.

Best,
Peter