Urban Legends and Hoaxes
Although urban legends and hoaxes are not usually associated with
con artists and frauds, they do however cost consumers their time
and mental effort. People will dwell on them, debate their
validity and then perpetuate them like viruses upon the information
highway, both verbally and electronically.
They say that the resources wasted on a single false charitable
e-mail plea for more e-mails or "get well" cards could
feed a city. ( The start of a new urban legend statistic. ) As
soon as you add "They say" to a sentence it somehow becomes
more factual.
Other sources which focus on, and attempt to verify or dispel, such
notions have done, and will continue to do, a much better job of
it than us so I will simply provide direct links and search capabilities
to their sites if you wish to investigate further.
About.com Urban
Legends Forum
Snopes2
Internet Hoax -
hoax page
Committee
for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) -
article
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