Internet Hoaxes on the Rise

We've all seen them. The innocent reference to the newest current event posted on your friend's Facebook feed or in a tweet from a co-worker. Sometimes it's faster to find out the latest news tidbit via the dynamic, ever-changing social networking web. In fact, news related posts have a way of going completely viral on the internet. Unfortunately, it spreads so quickly that they aren't always thoroughly filtered and researched by the individuals re-posting the story, if any scrutiny is given at all. These fabricated stories are internet hoaxes, and although they have been around for a while, I noticed they seem to become more predominant as social networking sites gain credibility as a viable news source.

An internet hoax is a lie that has been fabricated by someone who knows it is untrue when they decide to spread the false information. The technical definition of an internet hoax is “to deceive or trick people into believing or accepting something which the hoaxer (the person or group creating the hoax) knows is false.” 

Here are a few that you may have seen in your latest feeds:

• Samsung paid Apple $1 billion dollar fine in coins

This hoax originated on August 27th, where is was posted on Spanish site, El Deforma. The story was was soon re-published in English on various other humor satirical websites, before finally escaping its satirical origins and making its way around the Internet via blogs and various social media. 
 

• Morgan Freeman is dead

He is indeed alive and well. Although the latest death hoax for Morgan started in August of 2012, this isn’t the first time he has been a victim. In December 2010, he was said to have died in his Burbank home. Other actors death hoaxes: Robert Duvall has died after falling from a cliff while filming in New Zealand, Adam Sandler dies in snowboarding accident, Bill Nye “Science Guy”, WWE Wrestling star The Undertaker, Tom Kenny Voice of Sponge Bob, Bill Cosby, Tony Danza, Carlton from Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Eddie Murphy and others. I'd like to note that many of these individuals allegedly "died" on the same New Zealand cliff. Climbers beware!

 

• Heineken supports dog fighting

The photo that has been circulated on Facebook has been taken out of context. The signs were left at a club location in Mongolia from a previous event and the club was not open for public business when the dog fighting was taking place. Furthermore, Heineken has now ceased its relationship with the club entirely and taken steps to ensure that its products will never be sold there again.

• The Tree Octopus

This brings us full circle to one of the original internet hoaxes: The Tree Octopus. This hypothetical creature was invented by Lyle Zapato, a Washington-based author and Web publisher, in 1998. He created an Internet hoax website to draw people's attention and is often used by instructors for students to learn to think more objectively and not believe all that they find on the web.

 

After reading these, you may be asking yourself the same question: Why?

Unlike a scammer, whose efforts may be rewarded in the form of stolen funds or stolen identities, a hoax writer does not stand to reap a tangible reward. Hoaxsters have motives that are less transparent. These people may attract a sense of power or cheap thrill when they see how many times their hoax has been forwarded or “liked” by viewers. By making up a celebrity death, the hoaxer may suddenly use the celebrities’ popularity to attract people to their malicious attack pages. They may also feel "successful" by their own twisted standards by how many people they are able to trick into believing the story they have woven. Many hoaxers use it as a venting of anger against a society they resent.

 How can you help?

The best step we can take as responsible internet users is to not further agitate the situation or enable the internet hoaxer by refusing to feed into the hype and spread the lies. Overall, the main lesson to gain from the deliberate deception is that you should never re-post, share or display information that has not been proven to be true. As we learn in school, research the information, know your sources and be prepared to cite them. 

DN


Images and hoax details were obtained from the following sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_hoax
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/hoaxes/celebritydeaths.asp
http://www.hoax-slayer.com/latest-information.html
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/tree-octopus-facts.html
http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/