Online Dilemmas

Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who make up an identity or information that may not be true and pass it on via e-mail or discussion lists. Interspersed among the junk mail and spam that continues to enter our Internet e-mail boxes are extreme warnings about devastating new viruses and malicious software that can steal the computer right off your desk. Added to that are messages about free money, children in trouble, and other items designed to grab you and get you to forward the message to everyone you know. Most of these messages are hoaxes or chain letters. While hoaxes do not automatically infect systems like a virus or Trojan, they are still time-consuming and costly to remove from all the systems where they exist.

There are two known factors that make a hoax “successful,” they are:

1. credibility by association—who sent the message originally
2. technical sounding language

The digital dilemma is that the same technology that is making more current information available more quickly and completely also has the potential to demolish a careful balancing of public good and private interest. The public good is the broad availability of information anchored by the constitutional mandate to promote the "progress of science and the useful arts"; the private interest is the time-limited monopoly given to a contributor to that progress. The challenge is to strike and maintain a balance, offering enough to motivate authors, inventors, and publishers, but not so much as to threaten important public policy goals, such as promotion of education and scholarship. Many authors and musicians hesitate in putting their information or music online. What may be good for one may end up being costly for someone else. Advances in technology have produced radical shifts in the ability to reproduce, distribute, control, and publish information. The average computer owner today can easily do copying that would have required significant investment and perhaps criminal intent only a few years ago.

Chain Letter and Hoax

Chain letters and most hoax messages all have a similar pattern.

• Hook - something to catch your interest and get you to read the rest of the letter
• Request - such as mail a dollar to the top ten names on the letter and then pass it on
• Threat - warn you about the terrible things that will happen if you do not maintain the chain

Chain letters usually do not have the name and contact information of the original sender so it is impossible to check on their authenticity.

Example: “The Make Money Fast (MMF) chain is read by thousands of people daily. It is also known as: "Easy Cash", "Make Cash Fast", "Turn $5 into $50,000" and many others. They are all basically the same scheme, in which the reader send $1 to each of the 5 people at the bottom of the list, then moves his name onto the list.”

Hoax vs. Urban Legend vs. Rumor vs. Junk

It is good to understand the differences between a hoax, an urban legend, a rumor, and just plain junk. A hoax is a message which includes false, deliberately deceptive information. An urban legend is a popularly believed narrative which is usually false. A rumor may take the form of a personal anecdote, it may be true, false, or in-between. Junk is the flotsam and jetsam of the Net, such as advertisement windows that pop up, or lists which sign you up for e-mail advertisements or notifications.