----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, September 22, 2007 7:23 PM
Subject: CU22: Urban Legends Reference Pages Update #329
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| |  | Urban Legends Reference Pages:
Update #329 Hello again from snopes.com, where we shed light on the wild tales you've heard! This e-mail gives information about new articles recently added to the Urban Legends Reference Pages and provides pointers to older pieces about rumors and hoaxes still wandering into everyone's inboxes. Our last update mailing was September 15, 2007. If after this update you are left wondering about something newly arrived in your inbox, our search engine stands ready to assist you. Bookmark that URL — it's a keeper!
An RSS feed for our What's New page is available at the following URL:
http://www.snopes.com/info/whatsnew.xml
And now to the legends, the mayhem, and the misinformation!
New Articles
- Hanky warning: Video clip shows an aired-once-only Budweiser commercial paying tribute to 9/11 victims.
- This week the media was awash in stories about this being the emoticon's 25th anniversary. We say the little critters are older.
- Political humor: Recycled joke posits problem with new postage stamp.
- E-mail warns that jerky treats manufactured in China have been making dogs sick.
- While the "free chicken sandwich and Coke at Chick-fil-A" promotion was for real, the company has since announced its fulfillment level has been reached.
- The movement to ban dihydrogen monoxide strikes again!
Worth a Second Look - A physician once attempted to measure the weight of the human soul.
Still Haunting the Inbox - 15-year-old Evan Trembley of Wichita Falls, Texas, isn't missing - it's a hoax.
- Dialing #77 or *677 is not a surefire way of reaching the local highway patrol — the service is in place in some regions, but not in others. If in need of assistance, dial 911 instead for the sure thing.
- We look at two eraser sponge rumors, that they contain formaldehyde or have caused chemical burns when rubbed on skin.
- While it's true a consortium of wireless providers is planning to create a 411 (directory assistance) service for cell phone numbers, you need not register your cell phone with the national "Do Not Call" directory to prevent your number from being provided to telemarketers.
- The missing child alert about 13-year-old Ashley Flores of Philadelphia is a hoax.
- Petition advocates buying/not buying gasoline from Citgo. And no, Citgo did not change its name to Petro Express.
- No, the new dollar coin doesn't omit "In God We Trust" - that phrase has been stamped into its edge.
- The entreaty to aid 7-year-old Amy Bruce who is dying of lung cancer and a brain tumor by forwarding an email and a sappy poem titled "Slow Dance" is a hoax.
- E-mail compares George W. Bush's eco-friendly ranch with Al Gore's energy-expending mansion.
- E-mailed petition advocates denying social services to immigrants.
- Will pressing #-9-0 on your telephone allow scammers to make long-distance calls and charge them to your phone bill?
- No, Johns Hopkins Hospital has not issued a "cancer update" detailing how cancer spreads and recommending methods for treating the disease.
- Is Illinois Senator Barack Obama "ideologically Muslim"?
- 809 area code scam: Unsuspecting phone customers have been gulled by con artists into placing calls to area codes in the Caribbean that result in hefty charges.
- While the FDA health advisory regarding drugs containing PPA (phenylpropanolamine) is the real thing, it's outdated.
- While actor Lee Marvin did fight in the Pacific theater during World War II, earned a Purple Heart, and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery, he and Bob Keeshan (TV's "Captain Kangaroo,") did not fight together in the battle for Iwo Jima.
- There was no letter to Starbucks from coffee-seeking G.I.s serving in Iraq, so no response from the coffee retailer saying it didn't support the war and anyone in it. As for Oscar Mayer refusing troops free hot dogs, the 2004 Starbucks e-mail was altered in 2007 to aim it at the blameless hot dog maker.
- No, Jay Leno did not write the "Hits the Nail on the Head" essay — it was Craig R. Smith.
- There's no abductor prowling the Target parking lot in Wheaton, Illinois, who is using an old lady who appears to be in distress to lure victims.
- E-mail claims Jane Fonda betrayed U.S. POWs during the Vietnam War.
- During the 1987 Iran-Contra hearings, Oliver North did decry that a certain terrorist was "the most evil person alive" and that "an assassin team [should] be formed to eliminate him and his men from the face of the earth," but he wasn't talking about Osama bin Laden.
- Images do show the USS New York, which is being built with steel from the Twin Towers.
- No, robbers are not luring female victims into sniffing ether-laced perfume in parking lots.
- While it is true that in 2004 a man in India was electrocuted when trying to use his cell phone as it recharged, it is safe to use your cell phone while it is charging.
- Hillary Clinton is the subject of many e-mailed items, and our "Clintons" section contains write-ups about a number of them.
- No, Bill Gates is not sharing his fortune with everyone who forwards a specific e-mail on his behalf. This tired leg-pull continues to romp through everyone's inbox, the most widespread incarnation swearing "This took two pages of the Tuesday USA Today!"
- Virus announcement and virus hoax e-mails are afoot! We try to keep current on them and do our best to point readers to authoritative links confirming or debunking them.
Fraud Afoot - Seems like everyone has become the recipient of mysterious e-mails promising untold wealth if only one helps a wealthy foreigner quietly move millions of dollars out of his country. The venerable Nigerian Scam has discovered the goldmine that is the Internet. Beware — there's still no such thing as "something for nothing," and the contents of your bank account will end up with these wily foreigners if you fall in with this.
- Likewise, look out for mailings announcing you've won a foreign lottery you don't recall entering.
- Or that because you share the surname of a wealthy person who died without leaving a will you're in line for a windfall inheritance.
- And be especially wary if, while trying to sell or rent anything online (car, boat, horse, motorcycle, painting, apartment, you name it) you're approached by a prospective buyer/renter who wants to pay with a cashier check made out for an amount in excess of the agreed-upon price and who asks the balance be sent to a third party.
- Aspiring work-at-homers promised big bucks for acting as intermediaries for international transactions wherein they cash checks for other parties or reship goods to them have been defrauded by con artists. Don't you be next.
- If someone telephones to announce you can have a $200 Wal-Mart shopping spree or $200 in gasoline coupons in return for a $3.49 processing charge to be debited directly from your bank account, hang up. You're being set up via the promise of "something for almost nothing" into authorizing a swindler to help himself to the contents of your bank account.
- If someone calls to announce you've failed to appear for jury duty and will be arrested, do not give the caller your personal and financial information in an effort to prove he's sending the gendarmes after the wrong guy. You're being tricked into giving up this information to an identity thief.
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by Barbara and David P. Mikkelson
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