Hoax Museum Blog: Urban Legends

The Nigerian Bank Scam — For more info about the Nigerian Bank Scam, check out Douglas Cruickshank's article in Salon from August 2001 in which he delved into the strange, seductive poetry of the Bank Scam missives. David Emery also had a piece about them in SF Gate in March 2002, while Ian Kaplan has collected many examples of the scam. Finally, the Embassy of Nigeria actually has a statement on its website from the Central Bank of Nigeria warning people about the swindle.

Posted: Fri Jul 19, 2002. Comments (0)

Interview with a Nigerian Bank Scammer — Wired also had a good article yesterday about the Nigerian Bank Scam, in which they interviewed a Nigerian student who actually used to compose the letters that were sent out to potential victims. The student says that the letters were purposefully designed to read like offbeat soap operas.

Posted: Fri Jul 19, 2002. Comments (1)

Crop Circle Movie — Wired has an article today about crop circles, in anticipation of M. Night Shyamalan's movie Signs coming out next month.

Posted: Fri Jul 19, 2002. Comments (0)

Unusual Bomb Hoax — Normally I don't like to mention bomb hoaxes, since giving them any attention only plays into the hoaxer's hand, but this case seems to be an exception. A man, while clearing out his closet, threw out a fake bomb that he had once created for a marketing project in college. The next day his building was evacuated when someone saw it lying in the dumpster. Full story at the NY Times (reg. required).

Posted: Thu Jul 18, 2002. Comments (0)

Dino Bird — The Natural History Museum in London is opening an exhibit on "Dino-Birds: The Feathered Dinosaurs of China." It will include the archaeopteryx, the oldest known fossil of a bird, which was accused of being a fake back in the 1980s. I wonder if it will also include the Piltdown Chicken fossil which fooled National Geographic two years ago?

Posted: Thu Jul 18, 2002. Comments (0)

Museum of Forgery — The Museum of Forgery: a nomadic institution dedicated to the aesthetics of forgery.

Posted: Wed Jul 17, 2002. Comments (0)

Hacking is most often an inside job — Interesting article in the Daily Telegraph about computer hacking (requires registration), following last week's hacker conference in NYC. Quotes an expert who suggests that the majority of hacking directed against companies actually stems from insiders within the companies themselves.

Posted: Wed Jul 17, 2002. Comments (0)

Fake Elements — Faking the periodic table: How a scientist forged data to invent two new elements.

Posted: Tue Jul 16, 2002. Comments (0)

Dr. Pepper Pledge of Allegiance — Got a few e-mails about the Dr. Pepper/Pledge of Allegiance issue that's circulating through e-mail. Here's the text of the e-mail that people are receiving:
Just sharing the info with you that I received!

For those who have not heard, the bottlers/manufacturers of Dr. Pepper and their other products, have started a "new" can campaign. They are putting patriotic scenes on them. One, is the Empire State Bldg. with the pledge of allegiance...but ... they left off the words..."under God". They felt it might "offend" some. I don't know about you, but as a Christian, I am boycotting their products! They said they didn't "have room" for those words, but yet they had room for "indivisible" on the can Please pass this along to others and see if we can get a message out to Dr.Pepper ....ifhaving "under God" on cans offends them, then they don't need our money with "in God we trust" on it!!!
It turns out that Dr. Pepper did quote part of the Pledge of Allegiance on a patriotically themed can, and they did leave out the phrase 'Under God.' But then they only quoted three words from the pledge: "One nation... indivisible." So they also left out all references to the flag, the republic, liberty, and justice.

Here's Dr. Pepper's official response to the controversy: Dr. Pepper

Posted: Mon Jul 15, 2002. Comments (2)

Quarter-stealing Bird — A bird that steals quarters from a vending machine. Is this a hoax? I honestly don't know.

Update: Apparently it's not.

Posted: Mon Jul 15, 2002. Comments (2)

USA Today Hacked — Hackers broke into USA Today's web site and replaced the real news with fake stories. One of the hoax stories was that the Vatican had declared the Bible to be an April Fool's joke.

Posted: Sun Jul 14, 2002. Comments (0)

Sisters Switch Places — Read this story in the Mirror: "A WOMAN fooled jail authorities for ten months by going to prison for her older sister. The 33-year-old took the place of her 37-year-old sibling in a fraud case in Zwiebruecken , Germany. The con was only discovered when she absconded on compassionate leave. Both now face jail."

Posted: Sat Jul 13, 2002. Comments (1)

CDC Website — The Center for Disease Control has a Health Related Hoaxes and Rumors page. Worth checking out.