Guest guest Posted January 30, 2004 Report Share Posted January 30, 2004 snopes.com Urban Legends Reference Pages: Update #150 Hello again from snopes.com, your corner of urban legends sanity on the World Wide Web! 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 January 23, 2004. 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! Donations are both welcome and very much appreciated, so if you would like to help the site or just want to say thanks for these update mailings, please consider making a small contribution. You'll find information on how to donate (either online or by regular mail) here. And now to the legends, the mayhem, and the misinformation! New Articles Yet another "joe job" directed at DarkProfits.com, this one a "Sales Order" for "1 Month Child Porn Unlimited Online Access." A lottery winner was run over by a truck and killed hours after his win. The strange tangles of the Marcus Dixon case: 18-year-old black man jailed for ten years for having had sex with a 15-year-old white girl. Did a law professor demonstrate that the results of the 2000 U.S. presidential election correspond to an 18th century historian's prediction of conditions accompanying the downfall of democracy? Old legend: A couple who return to the hotel where they honeymooned are shocked to discover their wedding night activities were videotaped and made available to other guests. New virus on the rampage: Novarg (aka MyDoom). Does a Nike shoe advertisement employ terrorist-related imagery? Are power companies fining customers for keeping their holiday lights up past the festive season? Solved crime: Houston police are no longer looking for robbers who use their vehicles to bump the cars of their victims. Another phishing trip: Has the FDIC insurance on your bank account been cancelled by the Department of Homeland Security for violations of the Patriot Act? Joke on the loose: Super Bowl quarterback was formerly a foreign soldier who could toss grenades well. Worth a Second Look — Super Bowl Stuff!!! Unraveling the Super Bowl Indicator: Does the Bowl winner predict stock market performance for the year? Do the previous year's market results forecast the winner of the big game? Is the incidence of domestic violence against women higher on Super Bowl Sunday than on any other day of the year? What do avocados, flushing toilets, and Disneyland have to do with the Super Bowl? Our Super Bowl lore page tells all. Before Super Bowl XXII, did a reporter ask Washington Redskins QB Doug : "How long have you been a black quarterback?" Did a controversial officiating call in a playoff game lead to the death of Minnesota Vikings quarterback Fran Tarkenton's father? From hero to zero? Are players whose photos grace cans of 's Chunky Soup doomed by a curse to injury or subsequent obscurity? Still Haunting the Inbox Target is neither French-owned nor provides corporate grants for 'gay and lesbian causes.' It donates generously to veteran causes (including "The Wall that Heals," the tour of the Vietnam War Memorial) and supports the Toys for Tots program. The email asking for help in locating 5-year-old missing Penny Brown is a hoax. Photo of a cute redheaded kid or not, there is no such child. This hoax has been running since 2001. Drug products containing PPA (phenylpropanolamine) were pulled from the market due to FDA concerns that PPA may cause strokes. The 2000 e-mailed warning about same is back again. Sears pays the difference in salaries and maintains benefits for their called-up reservist employees. A USPS stamp commemorates the Islamic holidays of Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. Some folks think it should be boycotted. Tommy Hilfiger never said "If I knew that blacks and Asians were going to wear my clothes, I would have never designed them" nor did Oprah ever throw him off her show. Shopping center parking lots across America have not been inundated by thieves who trick women into sniffing perfume that is actually a knock-out drug. It's another baseless scare, kept alive by folks who alter pre-existing e-mails decrying this danger or write new ones describing "attacks" that haven't taken place. Members of Congress do indeed pay into the Social Security fund. The 1999 hoax about venomous spiders lurking under the seats of public toilets is on the loose again, this time placing the butt chomping arachnids in an Olive Garden in Florida. Godless soda cans: Someone has confused Pepsi with Dr Pepper. Dr Pepper's "one nation" can design that omitted "under God" from a quote from the Pledge of Alligiance was used for only a short time ending in February 2002. The cans haven't been on the shelves since. Newer versions of incitements to boycott name Pepsi as the culprit responsible for Godless cans, but this is just a garbling of the Dr Pepper story — Pepsi has nothing to do with this. Serial killers are not luring women to their deaths with the use of a tape recording of a baby crying. 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. 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. No, Bill Gates is not sharing his fortune with everyone who forwards a specific e-mail on his behalf. This tired leg-pull is back for yet another romp through everyone's inbox. In another popular version of the same jape, Applebees is said to be handing out gift certificates. They ain't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 2, 2009 Report Share Posted November 2, 2009 http://www.thejemreport.com/content/view/235/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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