This specific email, though it has existed in many forms throughout the past year or so, was finally placed on the web July 25th, 2000. It is ment to be a brief instructional tool for those that question the validity of an email that was forwarded to them.

With the rise of the popularity of the internet comes the rise of another phenomena: blind faith.

It is a well document fact that many many people will give an unreasonable amount of trust to any single person wearing a white lab coat. It is strange, but it's true. People tend to assume that anyone in a white lab coat is a scientist, or at least a more learned person than they are and therefore would /of course/ know exactly what they are talking about.

Along the same vein, is an electronic version of the same thing. In a time when technology is increasing so rapidly, people tend to ignore common sense and think that pretty much everyone else knows more about this "internet" than you do and are willing to belive almost anything.

Enter the "Net Hoax."

They range from the absurd to the believable and back again. They deal with things as basic as fear to as things as complex as your computers hard drive. But they all are designed to do the same thing: slow down the internet.

It's strange to think of this, but it's true. Millions of people forwarding the same emails around over and over again to thousands more. Each time, the email gets longer and longer due to all the extra information at the tops of the emails (called "headers"). It clogs email servers, and slows down your ability to access the internet.

Luckly, there are web sites that are devoted to tracking and squashing these net hoaxes. These sites are updated daily (and some times even hourly) with news and examples of all the current net hoaxes. They categorize them into sections such as: "Food and Drink," "'Free Stuff' Chain Letters," "Jokes and Urban Legends," and "Petitions, Politics and Protests."

One of the best web sites for tracking these wily emails can be found at www.about.com. They have a whole category under "Urban Legends" devoted just to the current Net Hoaxes. It can be found here:

http://urbanlegends.about.com/science/urbanlegends/library/blhoax.htm

Each section in the center of the page list all of the current junk emails with one or more of the following footers:
Hoax = False, deliberately deceptive information, including pranks & jokes.
UL = Urban Legend: a popularly believed narrative, most likely false.
Rumor = Unsubstantiated information forwarded with gusto.
Junk = Flotsam and jetsam of the Net.

For this example, we will focus on the "Petitions, Politics & Protest" section of the Net Hoaxes page, which can be found here:

http://urbanlegends.about.com/science/urbanlegends/library/blxprotest.htm

The second item on the page is:
"Bill 602P - a 5-Cent Tax on Email"
http://urbanlegends.about.com/science/urbanlegends/library/blemtax2.htm

Rather than repeat everything the page says about this current variation of a long long running thread on the internet, I will allow you to investigate by clicking on the link provided just prior to this paragraph. It goes into really good detail about the first incarnations of these types of emails and even links to past copies. Many times people will get a hoax email and change it just slightly so that it gains a "second life" on the internet only to be re-forwarded all over.

The basic lesson here is this:
Forward responsibly.
Check various online "net hoax" sources before you forward that email. Chances are it's probably a hoax. In some cases there is truth behind the email, but those are few and far between.
Most of all, don't trust everything you read.

Thanks!

If you would like to refer anyone to this email, I have placed a copy of it online (sans all email addresses) here:

http://www.cetan.com/net-hoax.html