By Elizabeth Stitt
A widely circulated e-mail from Captain Abraham Sands of the Florida Police Department warns readers about the dangers of hypodermic needles at gas pumps. The e-mail states pranksters placed hypodermic needles containing the HIV virus on the underside of gas pump handles. The captain advises people to look carefully before filling up their cars.
But according to truthorfiction.com, this letter is entirely fabricated. The truth is there is no Captain Abraham Sands, there is no Jacksonville Police Department and no incidents have been reported of HIV-infected needles on gas pumps.
Yet, one click of the mouse sends these rumors worldwide. This Internet rumor, known as an e-rumor, is one of thousands the staff at truthorfiction.com and many other e-rumor busting Web sites tries to quell.
The rumors contain information about viruses, chain letters, cancer-causing plastics and hoaxes advising users to send the e-mail on to as many people as possible and they?ll receive a check. While some may be true, the majority are false. A quick look on hoax-busting Web sites reveals the rumor?s validity and where it originated.
In 1998, Rich Buhler started truthorfiction.com, a Web site people can refer to when validating an e-rumor. He has researched and written about urban legends and rumors for more than 30 years and developed this Web site to get the word out about false information.
?Hopefully people who come can quickly and easily find whether something they got in an email is there and if it?s truth or fiction,? Buhler said. ?They can trust this is good, accurate, first-hand information.?
Buhler and a small staff of employees and volunteers regularly receive thousands of e-mails and their Web site has up to 15,000 hits a day. They research most of their information on the Internet, but if they can?t find it there, they try and track down the source. If they still cannot find any information, they list the e-rumor as unproven.
Barbara Mikkelson and her husband David started Snopes.com, another urban legend Web site that investigates rumors. They receive about 300 to 400 inquiries a day, with more than half of them dealing with online rumors.
Mikkelson said she and her husband use online news sources to verify rumors. They have also researched in books and even looked in century-old microfilms to discover the truth.
She said some rumors might be started deliberately, but only a small fraction of them.
?Most of the ones we find originate in an honest mishearing, misunderstanding, or misremembering of something,? Mikkelson said.
For example, a popular forwarded e-mail contains a speech Bill Gates gave at a high school graduation. He talks about 11 rules for life. The speech starts with rule one: ?Life is not fair, get used to it? and ends with rule 11: ?Be nice to nerds. Chances are you?ll end up working for one.?
But according to truthorfiction.com, Bill Gates never said those words. The rules are really an excerpt from the book ?Dumbing Down our Kids? by Charles Skyes.
Buhler said many e-mails tell readers to send the e-mail off to a certain number of people and they?ll receive money. But he said there is no system to trace forwarded e-mails to give benefits to the originator.
?Someone has created a prank to see how big it would get,? Buhler said. ?They?re like arsonists turning a match into a fire.?
Many urban legend researchers look in to why these e-rumors are passed on.
Eric Eliason, a folklore professor in the English department, said e-rumors have some element that piques the interest of the reader and helps them survive. It may be they warn of something, they?re interesting stories, or they deal with concerns and fears.
?E-rumors don?t have a national endowment,? Eliason said. ?They survive like organisms in an environment. If they?re not well-suited, they?re going to die out.?
Although many may suspect the stories are not true, they still pass them on, Eliason said.
Buhler said this attitude is harmful. He said when people send an e-mail, they automatically become a publisher, even if it?s only to their friends. He said this is why it?s important to research the facts and find the truth when sending information to friends. He said many Web sites, including his, are dedicated to providing the truth.
?They deserve to know you?re not sending them something that?s an error,? Bulher said. ?You need to check these things out.?