by Maria C Collins

Created on: October 29, 2009   Last Updated: November 01, 2009

Urban legends, myths and false virus warnings invade everyone's inbox every day. If you believed them all you would end up a nervous wreck. Should you pass them on regardless, and risk frightening your friends for no reason, or should you just delete and chance that all are untrue. As in life, you should never believe everything you see in an email. Luckily there are reliable sites where one can check whether these things are true or false.

The best ones give you the original text of the legend, myth or false virus warning i.e. a copy of what you received in your e mail inbox. The sites then explains where the false report originated why it is false and whether there is any truth in it whatsoever and how far that truth fits the original information.

There are a few of these reputable myth busting sites, however, the most comprehensive and informative site is Snopes.com. The most obscure legends, myths and false virus warnings are on the site. Snopes.com. have recently split their site into two sites one for legends and myths and one for computer viruses. This is a great improvement since the wealth of information on the original site was getting difficult to navigate.

On the myths and legends site there is a top twenty five of the week's currently circulating myths as well as an easy to navigate section of myths and rumours by category. On the virus hoaxes and realities site one can find out whether the frantic message that you just received from a friend truly is or is not a real virus. Whether it is partly true and indeed whether the dire warning of the annihilation of your computer is actually going to occur if you do or do not act on the advice given in the original message.

Snopes.com is the most comprehensive myth busting and virus warning busting site on the internet. Some people delight in frightening people to death by circulating false virus warnings. People forward these scary e mails on to their friends and contacts thinking that they are doing them a favour. What they actually do is add to fear level and to the e mail traffic generated by, what are often, either false warnings or, in the case of some false virus warnings, getting you to do something on your computer which may cause it to break down or allow them access to your computer. Yes some people really are nasty enough to do that. So before you forward the latest missive of doom check on snopes.com to see whether it is accurate and do all internet users a big service.

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