EFF "Hoaxes" Archive

Files in this Archive

1999_bill_602p.hoax

By now you've probably seen many copies of a bogus action alert about the US Postal Service attacking the Internet with "Bill 602P".</A> There is no such bill. The "alert" is a hoax. Please do not forward it any further. Instead reply to all the recipients of it that you see in the headers and let them know it is a hoax, to help stop the spread of it any further. (June 16, 1999)

960802_eff_alert.parody

EFF critic Bob Allisat posts a strange parody of of an EFF action alert. Includes response.

battling_hoaxes.article

This article will give some examples of what is meant by a pirate posting. These types of messages are in effect text viruses (virii?), since these propagate from system to system as a program virus might. Such distribution depends on users and sysops who pass along on without checking for trouble.

book_vchip.hoax

An April Fool's Day posting about the "news" that a new "V-Chip" had been designed, for books, to enable automated censorship of print media. The scary thing is that many people who took it seriously were actually *in favor* of the idea!

dont_spread_hoax.article

Recently, the internet community has endured a wave of e-mail hoaxes and pranks, exploiting users unfamiliarity with how the internet, and computer systems in general work. With the explosive growth of the internet and its popularity, more and more new users are "getting online" and becoming targets for pranksters.

email_facts_of_life.txt

Updated netiquette classic - a humorously sarcastic guide to avoiding online hoaxes, chain letters, and frauds (and avoiding being someone known for perpetuating them.) Bonus: also includes the "Bad Times Virus" parody, and the "bOING bOING Anti- Chain Letter".

jamal_ark_hoax.paper

On February 20, 1993, CBS aired "The Incredible Discovery of Noah's Ark," Sun International Pictures' rehash of its 1976 film "In Search of Noah's Ark." At the end of June, Skeptics Society advisor Gerald Larue publicly revealed (via Associated Press and Time magazine) that George Jammal, one of the alleged eyewitnesses of Noah's Ark on Mt. Ararat, was a hoaxer, and that Larue himself had played a role in the hoax.

energy_matrix_virus.hoax

Email message explaining the energy matrix virus (the sender was unaware that this "virus" was a hoax).

faking_ufo.article

One of the more amusing things you can do to make your life exciting is letting people believe they have seen some kind of alien spacecraft, better known as UFO or the effect of one.

goodtimes_virus_hoax.article

Government message debunking the "Good Times virus" myth.

hoax_innoculation.post

a parody of a typical Net hoax, intended to mock such hoaxes and "innoculate" the reader against the "Internet Gullibility Virus."

modem_tax.history

Brock Meeks article about the dreaded "modem tax" and a history of the proposal.

modem_tax.hoax

Message alerting the net community to the nefarious plans of the FCC to tax modem use. The catch: the FCC has no such plans.

sex_kitten_case.hoax

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Internet Fraud Watch

Don't Spread that Hoax!

The Education Page's resources on Net abuse, from viruses and hoaxes to spamming and fraud