The Truth About Web Hoaxes, Scams and Rumors

By: Charles Bowen Before the Web, urban legends were mainly just amusing. Alligators in the sewer. Millions of dollars discovered in discarded McDonald's cartons. Elvis spotted at the Kmart, at the car wash, at the KFC.

But now that we're a world of Web surfers -- and not only for fun, but also for commerce and for the public's business -- hoaxes, scams, rumors, and half-truths have become the bane of our information-driven society. Increasingly, our Web-bound computers need not only a virus detector, but also a lie detector. That's not a built-in PC feature yet, but at least the Web is rapidly moving us in the right direction.

A new site called Purportal.com boasts that "the bunk stops here." Its introductory screen says, "That story that your brother-in-law just sent to you and forty other people sounds true. ... Put it to the test here!" The site provides assorted search engines and related tools that let you check out that latest rumor before you hit the "forward" button in your e-mail software. It even enables you to create customized URLs that can be sent back to people who forwarded you hoaxes, chain letters, and other bogus material. And, as you would expect, the site also keeps a running database of news stories and user reports on the latest scams making the rounds.

To use the free service, visit http://purportal.com, where the introductory screen is topped with not one, but five data entry boxes with which you can debunk rumors. Enter a word or phrase in any to search the resources of:

* Snopes Urban Legends Archives (http://www.snopes.com), the Web's premiere Urban Legends References Pages operated since 1995 by Barbara and David P. Mikkelson.

* About.com's Urban Legends search (http://urbanlegends.about.com), hosted by writer David Emery, an avid chronicler of lore and the "folklife" of the Internet.

* The CIAC Hoax Database and the Hoaxbusters page (http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org) of the U.S. Department of Energy's Computer Incident Advisory Capability.

* The CERT Computer Security Database, provided by the CERT Coordination Center (http://www.cert.org).

* The Symantec Virus Encyclopedia, provided by anti-virus software publisher Symantec Corp. (http://symantec.com).

Besides searching out background on current rumors and possible hoaxes, the site also has an active news section. Simply scroll the introductory page to reach the "Latest Headlines" section, which appears to be updated frequently with summaries and links to stories from wire services and major newspapers and computer journals like Wired.

Other considerations for using Purportal.com in your writing and editing:

1. If you write about the site in your news columns or Internet-related features, you might want to alert students to the site's extensive extension of links. Scroll the front page of the site to the bottom to find its "Handy and Edifying Links" section.

2. Purportal.com is operated by Paul Bissex and E-Scribe New Media (http://e-scribe.com), which specializes in database-driven Web development.

3. If you need to write the operators of the site, scroll to the bottom of the main screen and click on the "Comments? Questions?" link.

---

To see the last 20 "Reporter's Digital How-to" columns, click here. Subscribers may access previous columns from our archives.