Of all things fishy

THE recent hoax message about a supposed mobile phone virus spread like wildfire throughout the city. Without checking and verifying, people feverishly forwarded the message to their friends and relatives, warning them against receiving any phone calls which have four digits.

Of course, there were many variations of this rumour. But at the end of the day, what matters is that they all proved false as cellphone companies along with the PTCL issued strong rebuttals against them.

One point that this incident glaringly illustrated was that people are prone to believing almost anything and everything they are told without question. Why else would they have forwarded the aforementioned message without even inquiring whether mobile phones can technically cause such damage to humans? Unfortunately, this mindset isn’t going to go away anytime soon. This is probably the reason why websites like Snopes exist.

Snopes is basically a website which counters all those forwarded emails that are circulated around the internet, by researching their claims thoroughly and publishing their findings and conclusions. Most people reading this will definitely have heard of Snopes at some point of their lives but, sadly, there are a very few who actually make a good use of it.

The way Snopes works is very simple. You log onto the website and use the search engine to hunt down a particular rumour that you’ve heard or received in a forwarded message. If the particular forwarded email is listed in the Snopes database, it will promptly turn up and you can read through the research findings.

The “findings” are presented in a specific format. Firstly, the status of whatever is written in the forwarded email is clarified — whether it is true, false or uncertain. Then, a detailed explanation is given as to why the website reached this conclusion. Variations of the same email are discussed in detail as well.

Let’s take an example. Say, an email tells you that AOL will pay five dollars to a charity cause. You log onto Snopes and enter “AOL charity”. The search results will take you to a webpage dedicated to this hoax. You will find the status of this rumour as “false”. Variations of this hoax email include “Microsoft paying $5” or maybe a difference in the charities that these companies are supposed to contribute to.

Of course, Snopes is not all about refuting forwarded emails. There are appeals for donations and signing petitions for causes which are genuine, but are ignored because they are deemed as a hoax. Snopes has proved that some of these appeals are quite authentic and, hence, it wouldn’t do any harm to sign the petition to contribute for a cause.

For your own information and to see what kind of hoax emails are circulated, you can check out the section on the top 25 urban legends and read up on their details. You will be surprised to see the type of emails that make the rounds — yes, even the ones that would cause many people to raise their eyebrows are somehow believed and forwarded. Moreover, you can even subscribe to the website to receive an email informing you of the updates of the website — in other words, find out what’s the new hoax on the block is.

If you’re really into this stuff, you can even register at the Snopes community and talk it out with other members — rant about the latest hoax or voice your frustration at having received yet another forwarded email in your inbox.

Hopefully, by now, the name Snopes has registered itself in your mind, so that the next time you receive a forwarded email, you can check its authenticity over here. Remember, if something is too good to be true, it probably is.

Get the scoop on all forwarded emails at www.snopes.com