Hoax Museum Blog: Email Hoaxes

Google Launches Gmail — Google has announced a new email service called Gmail, that will give each user one gigabyte of free storage. Strangely, the press release is dated April 1, leading many to speculate that it's an April Fool's Day joke. Maybe it is, but if so it would seem a very odd one. Usually April Fool's Day jokes involve a certain minimum level of wit, and you should feel foolish for believing them once you find out they're a joke. But if someone were to tell me that Gmail is a joke, I wouldn't feel foolish. I'd just feel like Google had lied. There is some goofy language in the press release, but otherwise it just doesn't seem over-the-top enough to be a joke. But time will tell.
Posted: Thu Apr 01, 2004.   Comments (11)
More Spam on April 1st — Makers of network security software are warning that there may be an increase in spam leading up to April Fool's Day. "Spammers are expected to use subject lines such as "great joke," "free jokes," "prank," or "April fools" to entice users into opening attachments that carry viruses or objectionable content, potentially putting company networks at risk."
Posted: Tue Mar 30, 2004.   Comments (0)
The Irish Virus hoax — This is just dumb. You receive an email with the following message: Greetings, You have just received the "IRISH VIRUS". As we don't have any programming experience, this Virus works on the honour system. Please delete all the files on your hard drive manually and forward this Virus to everyone on your mailing list. Thank you for your cooperation.
I think I've seen other versions of it that attribute it to other ethnicities/social groups. There's more info about it over at symantec.com. (submitted by Bob Pagani).
Posted: Sat Feb 21, 2004.   Comments (5)
Telephone Liars vs. Email Liars — A study reported on in the New Scientist has found that people lie more when they're talking on the telephone than they do when writing emails. The reason is that people are conscious of the fact that emails are saved and could come back to haunt them later, whereas telephone conversations don't tend to be recorded. Of course, this doesn't mean that more of the telephone calls we receive contain lies than the emails we receive. Just the opposite. Every day I'm flooded with emails that contain blatant lies, promising me instant riches and vast improvements in my physical prowess. This is because a small number of liars (spammers) can easily contact millions of people via email, whereas reaching the same number of people via telephone would be incredibly hard (though telemarketers give it their best shot).
Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2004.   Comments (0)
Bank of England Email Hoax — During the past week many people received an email apparently from the Bank of England. It read: "Dear customer. The security of your personal and account information is extremely important to us. By practising good security habits, you can help us ensure that your private information is protected. Please install our special software that will remove all the keyloggers and backdoors from your computer." The email, of course, was a hoax. Thankfully, those who went ahead and installed the attached file suffered no harm because the file appears to do nothing. The media have been calling this an example of a phishing scam (phishing being a scam in which spammers try to fool people into divulging personal info such as credit card numbers), but I don't think it was a phishing scam because I can't see where or how any personal info was being collected. To me it looks like it was just junk, pure and simple.
Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2004.   Comments (0)
Nigerian Navy Recruitment Scam — Just when we had all gotten used to those Nigerian email scams that fill up our inboxes every day, the Nigerian criminal class has gone back to the drawing board and come up with an entirely new way to con people out of money: it's the Nigerian Navy Recruitment Scam. Nigerian fraud artists are circulating fake documents that appear to be recruitment forms for the Nigerian Navy. I'm at a loss to see how exactly they make money out of this, but I'm sure they have a way. Meanwhile, the real Nigerian navy has announced that it will begin circulating real recruitment forms sometime this month.
Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2003.   Comments (47)
Nigerian Email Conference — John Walkenbach points out on his weblog that the Third Annual Nigerian Email Conference begins tomorrow in Abuja. I'm bummed that I can't make it.
Posted: Thu Nov 06, 2003.   Comments (1)
Single Black Female Looking for Love — An email has been making the rounds that appears to be a personal ad from a 'single black female' who's looking for love. Daisy, as the mystery female calls herself, promises that she loves to play and, if she finds the right man, will be willing to wait at home for him 'wearing only what nature gave me.' Thousands of men have called up the number listed in the email, only to find themselves connected to the Atlanta Humane Society. Daisy is, of course, a black Labrador. Here's the text of the email:
SINGLE BLACK FEMALE seeks male companionship, ethnicity unimportant. I'm a very good-looking girl who LOVES to play. I love long walks in the woods, riding in your pickup truck, hunting, camping and fishing trips, cozy winter nights lying by the fire. Candlelight dinners will have me eating out of your hand. Rub me the right way and watch me respond. I'll be at the front door when you get home from work, wearing only what nature gave me. Kiss me and I'm yours. Call [phone number] and ask for Daisy.
Posted: Mon Sep 29, 2003.   Comments (4)
Don’t Get Back into Your Car While Refueling — There's an email going around warning people not to reenter their car while filling the tank at a gas station. Doing so might create a spark that will set the gas fumes on fire, causing a flash fire. Now this sounds like some kind of urban legend, but Mike Davis at CarConnection.com, who's done some research into the subject, warns that the danger is small but real.
Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2003.   Comments (0)
Inner Peace — Here's a silly email that's going around. Not a hoax. Just a joke:

Inner Peace

I'm passing this along to you as I consider you a valued friend. This worked for me and I think it may work for you. I have found Inner Peace.
Recently I read an article that stated:
The best way to achieve inner peace is to Finish Things You Have Started. So today I finished two large bags of potato chips, the last half of a lemon cream pie, a nearly full bottle of Jose Cuervo, a small box of Godiva Chocolates and I slapped the living shit out of someone I have never liked. I feel better than I have felt for a long time!

Please pass this along to a friend who is in need of Inner Peace
Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2003.   Comments (0)
Hotmail Hoax — To all users of Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL, etc. If you ever get an email claiming to be from your service provider warning you that you need to forward the email you just received "so that we know you are still using this account," then it's a hoax. Variations of this hoax have actually been around a long, long time, but people are still falling for it.
Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2003.   Comments (3)
More About the Mystery Time Traveler — David Emery, at About.com, has dug up some interesting clues about the time-travel spammer. He notes that an authentic mind warper generator was once offered for sale on eBay, as well as a Generation 4 Dimensional Warp Generator. Bidding on these items has closed. He also notes that there's speculation that the mystery spammer is a well-known, Woburn-based spammer named Robert Todino, since the mystery spammer states that he lives in the Woburn area. But someone who wrote to me claims to have talked to the time traveler on the phone and supports the theory that the guy is crazy as a loon.
Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2003.   Comments (0)
Time Traveler Needs Help — There's an email going around claiming to be from a time traveler stuck in the year 2003 who needs a dimensional warp generator to get back home. Lots of people, myself included, are wondering what exactly this email is, and why someone is going to the trouble of bulk-mailing it to millions of people.
Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2003.   Comments (0)
Fake Website Scam Warning — The FBI says: beware fake websites. They're calling it the 'Phisher' scam. You receive an email that lures you to what you think is a legitimate website run by a real company (though it's not). Then you're tricked into divulging your personal information (credit card info, etc.)
Posted: Sun Jul 27, 2003.   Comments (0)
The Naked Chef — An email going around claims to contain, as an attachment, the next cookbook by Jamie Oliver (aka The Naked Chef). It's actually just a mock-up, containing recipes from his previous book. But I'm bummed that I haven't received this email yet.
Posted: Sun Jul 27, 2003.   Comments (0)
If you hear a baby crying… Don’t Open the Door — Here's a creepy email that's been making the rounds for at least half a year. It was sent to me by a visitor who wants to know if it's a hoax. Yes, it is. There have been no reported instances of serial killers using this particular modus operandi:

Someone just told me that her friend heard a crying baby on her porch the night before last, and she called the police because it was late and she thought it was weird.The police told her "Whatever you do, DO NOT open the door." The lady then said that it sounded like the baby had crawled near a window, and she was worried that it would crawl to the street and get run over. The policeman said, "We already have a unit on the way, whatever you do, DO NOT open the door." He told her that they think a serial killer has a baby's cry recorded and uses it to coax women out of their homes thinking that someone dropped off a baby. He said they have not verified it, but have had several calls by women saying that they hear baby's cries outside their doors when they're home alone at night. Please pass this on! and DO NOT open the door for a crying baby. This e-mail should probably be taken seriously because the Crying Baby theory was mentioned on America's Most Wanted this past Saturday when they profiled the serial killer in Louisiana.
Posted: Fri Jul 04, 2003.   Comments (3)
Public Service Announcement: Hoax Email — South African Airlines is not offering free flights to the public, especially not to people who annoy their friends by forwarding hoax emails on to them.
Posted: Tue Jul 01, 2003.   Comments (0)
Don’t Forward This Email — Public Service Announcement: if you get an email telling you that if you forward this message to five people you'll get a free flight from London to Asia courtesy of British Airways, DON'T BELIEVE IT. Versions of this hoax have been going around for years, involving Microsoft and Nike, among others. The premise of the hoax is always that these companies have some way of tracking email in order to determine who is forwarding their email. This, of course, is absolute nonsense.
Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2003.   Comments (0)
Public Credit Reports — There's an email going around claiming that consumer credit reports are soon going to be made public. It's a hoax.
Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2003.   Comments (1)
British Airways Hoax — British Airways officially denies an email hoax going around claiming that if you forward the message enough times you'll get a free flight.
Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2003.   Comments (0)
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