Hoaxes have been a part of American legend and lore for generations. With the advent of the Internet, hoaxes quickly found their way online as the information superhighway created a new avenue for hoaxes to be created, disseminated, and debunked. The speed and seeming authority of the Internet breathed new life into old stories while allowing for the creation of many new hoaxes. The hoaxes of the Internet age take advantage of new technologies to create convincing evidence, quickly manufacture authentic and authoritative origins, and respond to current events almost immediately. Combined with the quickness through which a hoax can spread over the Internet, the medium is a fertile ground for pranksters and con artists. From social media to email to video sharing sites, every aspect of the online world has seen its share of hoaxes. Much like their predecessors, which spread by word of mouth, letters, or fax, some hoaxes are meant to be profitable for the hoaxers, while some are malicious, and others simply seek to fool as many people as possible; a few just tell a good story. Unlike the hoaxes of old, the Internet provides new incentives for hoaxers, as a well-done hoax can mean instant popularity for the perpetrators, which can sometimes translate into fame and fortune, tracked by the modern rubrics of hits, views, likes, and friends.
The earliest Internet hoaxes relied on the fact that most people were unfamiliar with the new technology and were often retreads of classic hoaxes and scams. The ease with which an email could claim to be from a government agency or a major corporation, combined with the authority built into the new system of interconnected Web pages, lent Internet hoaxes a convincing weight that was hard to obtain in the pre-Internet era, especially when they dealt with the technical aspects of the rapidly growing new medium. The Internet vastly increased the ease through which hoaxes could spread, as credulous and well-meaning Internet users passed on the hoaxes with a simple click. Email has been one of the most popular means of spreading hoaxes since the early days of the Internet, with hoaxers often preying on the sympathy, greed, fear, or ignorance of the recipient. One of the very first hoaxes to hit the Internet was in a 1988 email that dealt with a virus alert. Using the computer jargon of the era, which proved intimidating to early casual Internet users, the email warned of a fictitious virus spread through the use of 2400 baud modems.
Since then, generations of hoax emails have clogged inboxes worldwide. Email has remained a favored means of transmission for hoaxes as gullible or concerned Internet users will send the hoax on to others, rather than having to wait for a user to come across a Web page. Other versions of email hoaxes include Microsoft rewarding those who help test new email tracking software or the false news that a celebrity has died. A few hoax emails seem to mean well, such as warning of thieves stealing kidneys from unwary tourists, or they play on emotions, with the story of a sick child relying on email forwards to pay for a lifesaving operation. Some hoaxes are far from harmless, such as the Nigerian prince scam, where an email offers the reader a share of a large fortune but winds up taking money from the hapless victim. Hoaxes on the Internet have shown the flexibility to change with the times, as newer variations of the Nigerian Prince hoax claim to be from American forces in Iraq seeking to move large amounts of money out of the country. Classic forms of email hoaxes have made the jump to Twitter and other social media sites to spread their message. With the introduction of iOS7 in 2013, a fake ad closely resembling official Apple advertisements falsely claimed the update made iPhones waterproof, while another email hoax claimed cell phones could be recharged by a few minutes in a microwave.
Hoaxes are not limited to email or social media. The success of the 1999 film The Blair Witch Project was helped by a website that claimed the story told in the film was true. Faced with supporting information on the Internet, many moviegoers went into the film convinced they were watching a true account of a brush with the supernatural. The website Bonsai Kitten horrified most visitors in 2000 and incensed animal rights activists by purporting to sell kittens stuffed into tiny glass boxes to stunt their growth. Despite the implausibility of keeping an animal alive in a sealed container, the sheer shock value of the site kept the views coming, and the resulting controversy only added to the fame of the site. The popular online encyclopedia Wikipedia has faced its share of attempted hoaxes, with one article on the fictional Bicholim War remaining on the site for five years until it was finally removed in 2012. A few hoaxes are unintentional, as they begin life as a humorous or satirical article, only to have the piece picked up by other websites and news agencies and reported as fact. This disconnection of a photo or article from the original source has helped the growth of Internet-born hoaxes, as the public becomes used to the random posting of images or stories without attribution.
Internet Hoax Busters
Like fact-checking Internet versions of television’s Mythbusters, websites like Snopes and Hoax Busters have made it their mission to debunk hoaxes in general and Internet scams in particular. While Snopes is the fact-checking engine of choice for many who wish to prove or to disprove widely circulated rumors and suspect news reports, sites like Hoax Busters are more concerned with informing and educating Internet users about ongoing efforts of sleazy online hucksters and spam engines to deceive and defraud credulous individuals. Tell-tale signs of Internet hoaxes include urgent messages containing warnings of terrible consequences and/or unrealistic offers or inheritances or cash giveaways. Like the chain letters and pyramid schemes of yore, such scams play on the gullibility, greed, and impulsiveness of a small percentage of respondents; what the Internet has added is to render even a tiny response rate a potential gold mine for cyber confidence men.
C. Fee
However, the growing sophistication of both the Internet and its users led to increasingly elaborate hoaxes dependent on the capabilities of the medium, one of the most notable being the “lonelygirl15” hoax in 2006. A deliberate hoax from the beginning, lonelygirl15 began as a series of innocuous video blogs posted to YouTube by a teenager named Bree Avery. As the series attracted viewers, the tone of the blogs shifted and hints of a dark secret clouded Avery’s videos until a story of occult practices and mysterious disappearances emerged. Eventually exposed as a hoax, the lonelygirl15 story held viewers enthralled for months and spawned a series of related videos that ran for two more years. While the lonelygirl15 hoax was carefully planned, many other hoaxes happen spontaneously or in reaction to an event, as opportunistic pranksters take advantage of breaking news or an upswing in interest in a subject. The surprising and seemingly unavoidable death of the character Aeris in the game Final Fantasy VII sent players racing to the Internet to find some way of saving the character. Reacting to the flood of questions and requests for help, hoaxers released faked screenshots and claims of a secret complicated mission that must be completed to revive Aeris.
The ability to manufacture convincing evidence and to make hoaxes perpetually available to a world audience are, perhaps, the greatest contributions from the Internet to the practice of hoaxing. Once-fringe subjects are now easily found through a simple search, and classic hoax subjects such as UFOs have seen renewed life on the Internet due to a flood of videos and photos posted online. A well-made hoax can stir instant notoriety, and, unlike older forms of transmission, once a hoax is released onto the Internet, it is difficult, if not impossible, to completely eradicate it. The ease with which extremely professional and realistic photographs can be faked has led to classic images of the Loch Ness Monster and UFOs next to photos of giant cats and of a shark attacking a helicopter. Documents that were once only in the hands of niche researchers or were hard to find, such as the Majestic 12 papers, which purport to hold the records of American government interaction with aliens, are now a click away. The Bigfoot video is now hosted on dozens of sites, and the Internet has created its own legendary hoax figures, such as Slender Man, a child-stealing supernatural being. However, the very same technological savvy that allows the creation of forgeries also lets skilled skeptics debunk a hoax. A hoax video of a young child being carried off by an eagle in 2012, created as part of a class project from a design school in Canada, was rapidly debunked by Internet users who detected subtle errors in the video.
Despite their entertainment value, Internet hoaxes can and do have negative impacts. Hoax emails about sick children divert attention from genuine causes, and fake warnings about terrorists striking malls or kidney thieves distract Internet users from real hazards and actual news. Healthy skepticism can easily turn into constant suspicion. False information on historical subjects such as the Bicholim War threatens to create a chain reaction of incorrect citations, undermining the system of academic checks and balances and the work of serious researchers. As the Internet has come into its own as a digital space with a distinct language, culture, and etiquette, it is no surprise that the Internet is also generating its own mythology and unique takes on hoaxes. From co-opting older urban legends and hoaxes to creating modern-day versions of Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster, the Internet has created an environment where hoaxes can thrive and where hoaxers can obtain tangible benefits for their trickery. The ingenuity of hoaxers armed with savvy technological skills has been with the Internet from the beginning and will likely remain a part of a developing Internet culture.
Daniel Fandino
See also Conspiracy Theories; Myths; Slender Man; Urban Legends/Urban Belief Tales; Written or Printed Traditions
Further Reading
Bartholomew, Robert E., and Benjamin Radford. 2011. The Martians Have Landed!: A History of Media-Driven Panics and Hoaxes. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.
Mintz, Anne P. 2002. Web of Deception: Misinformation on the Internet. Medford, NJ: Information Today.
Ryan, Johnny. 2013. A History of the Internet and the Digital Future. London: Reaktion Books.
Silver Lake Editors. 2006. Scams and Swindles: How to Recognize and Avoid Internet Era Rip-Offs. Aberdeen, WA: Silver Lake.
Swope, Robin, 2012. Slenderman: From Fiction to Fact. London: Open Gate Press.
Internet Hoaxes—Primary Document
Famous Nigerian 419 Email Scam (1980s)
The Internet has spawned countless hoaxes and scams since its inception in the 1980s. It gives con artists an inexpensive and global means of communication, along with a veil of anonymity to shield their fraudulent activities. The most famous and most enduring Internet scam is the email supposedly from a public official in Nigeria promising millions if the recipient provides personal bank account information. It is commonly referred to as the Nigerian 419 Scam in reference to the country of origin of the early email rackets and to the article in the Nigerian Criminal Code that deals with fraud.
From: Dr. Goronyo Baba.
Satellite Tel: Note: Do not send emails. You can contact me directly on the tel.number or by sending me a satellite message stating your telephone number and email address contact on this number just given to you using the link online below. http://www.iridium.com/..there, you will see send a satellite message to my sat.tel.number-881-631-410-574
Attn: President/C.e.o.
Strictly Confidential and Urgent Business Proposal.
Re: Transfer Of Usd $21,500.000 {Twenty-One Million, Five Hundred Thousand Us Dollars Only.
I am a member of the Federal Government Of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (N.N.P.C). Sometime ago, a contract was awarded to a foreign firm in the Petroleum Trust Fund (P.T.F.) BY MY COMMITTEE.
This contract was over invoiced to the tune of us $ 21.5 Million Dollars. This was done delibrately. The over-invoicing was a deal by my committee to benefit from the project. We not want to transfer this money, which is in a suspense account with the P.T.F. into any oversea account, which we expect you to provide for us.
Share:
60 % of the money would be for my partners and I. 30 % of the money would be yours, for providing us with logistics, which, would include a safe bank account, where we shall facilitate funds transfer into, as soon as documentations are concluded over here. 10 % of the money has been mapped out from the total sum to cover any expenses that might be incurred during the course of the transaction, (both local and international expenses).
If interested in assisting us, please contact me via my secured satellite tel number- 881-631-410-574, specially procured for this project, using the text message.
It may interest you to know that a similar transaction was carried out with one Mr. Patrice Miller, President of Crane International Trading Corp., of 153 East 57th St., 28th floor, N.Y.10022, Telephone: 212-308-7788 and Telex: 6731689. The deal was concluded and all covering documents, forwarded to Mr. Miller to authenticate the claims. Once the funds were transferred, Mr. Miller presented to his bank, all the legal documents and remitted the whole funds to another bank account, and disappeared completely. My colleagues and I were shattered, since such opportunities are not easy to come by.
Please, if you are interested in assisting us carry out to the fullest capacity, this transaction, we would require the following information from you which would enable us to make formal application to the various ministries / parastatals, for the release and onward transfer of the money to your account.
1. Your Full Name, Company’s Name, Address, Telephone and Fax Numbers. 2. Your Bank Name, Address. Telephone and Fax Number. 3. Your Bank Account Number and Beneficiary Name - You must be the signatory.
Please, note that we have strong and reliable connections at the Central Bank Of Nigeria and other Government Parastatals, hence assistance in this regards, would not be a problem. At the conclusion of this transaction, we shall use same contacts to withdraw all documents used in the course of this, to avoid any trace whatsoever that may ever arise, to you or to us, now and in the nearest possible future.
It might also interest you to know that we are mere civil servants who do not want to miss this opportunity, hence, we want this money transferred out, as soon as possible, before the newly democratically elected government ever think of making enquiries as regards the various activities of the past military government.
Kindly contact me as soon as possible, whether or not you are interested in this deal, so that whereby you are not interested, it would give us more room to scout for another partner. But if you are interested, kindly contact me via above email, telephone or fax, so that we can swing into action, as time is not on our part.
I wait in anticipation of your fullest co-operation. Yours Faithfully,
Dr. Goronyo Baba.
Send me your email address and tel. number if interested for re-verification that you actually received this mail.
Source: Hoax-Slayer. Available online at http://www.hoax-slayer.com/nigerian-scam-examples.html.