Urban Legends
Urban Legends are anecdotal stories that many people assume are true because they have heard them so many times; but in reality and simply hoaxes and deliberate or unintentional misinformation. A classic example is the story of the woman who tried to dry her small dog or cat in the microwave. Here are many others and the proofs that they are false.
Here are the top Urban Legends from Snopes.com ( http://www.snopes.com/info/topsearches.asp - great site, that focuses on urban legends - check them out!)
- DON'T EVER DIAL AREA CODE 809 , 284 AND 876
- Target stores do not support veterans
- Missing child: Penny Brown
- Bill Gates pays cash for forwarding e-mail from Microsoft/AOL/Intel
- Sears' payment of military reservist employees
- Women are being robbed by parking lot crooks with knock-out perfume samples
- FDA recall of products containing phenylpropanolamine (PPA)
- Crying baby serial killer warning
- Missing UPS uniforms warning
- Computer virus: Life is Beautiful.pps
- Members of Congress don't pay into Social Security
- Pepsi cans and the Pledge of Allegiance
- Free gift certificates for Applebee's restaurant
- USPS stamp commemorates Muslim holidays
- Abercrombie and Fitch racy Christmas catalog
- Woman escapes from rapist by calling #77
- Telephone scam: #-9-0
And please let us know about any suspicious calls or emails you receive. We look for patterns so that we can alert the authorities and victims to new scams, before it is too late!
For a comprehensive list of national and international agencies to report scams, see this page.