Cyberbullying, Flaming and Cyberstalking [CFC]
for Parents, Educators and Law Enforcement
Telling Fact from Fiction Online
Evaluating e-mail announcements, rumors and cyberhoaxes
Each time something arrives in our e-mail box threatening the latest disaster, you should ask yourself these six questions before acting on it:
- Who sent it? (Is it the same person who claims the sky is falling every week? Or someone you know to be credible and not pass along rumors?)
- Does it cite a famous and trusted authority? (If so, check out that authority’s website to see if this is mentioned. If it’s real, it should be mentioned there first. And don’t use a link provided in the e-mail, get to the site the old-fashioned way, by typing it into your browser or using a valid bookmark.)
- Does it involve something sensationalistic? (Is it designed to get you to act first and think later, and require you pass it along quickly? If so, you have to check it out first. If its real, it will be reported at the news sites, virus-blocking websites, by help groups, like WiredSafety.org, or law enforcement.)
- Does it claim to have come to you because you’re “special” or “trusted” or “honest” or considered a leader or influencer? (It’s so nice to hear people say good things about us, we forget to be suspicious when that happens. Unfortunately, this one factor alone accounts for many people being scammed or defrauded. They believe they are special, and when others agree with them, it feels good. So good they forget to use their heads.)
- Does it further the sender’s goals or self-interests? (This isn’t as easy to spot as some of the other factors, especially if a criminal is involved in trying to scam you out of your money and passwords to PayPal and other payment mechanism services. It’s far easier when the e-mail is sent by the local neighborhood crackpot who has seen one more flying saucer. But look suspiciously at anything that doesn’t feel right. Look for the hook. It’s almost always there, especially if you check things out by going to the real sources you trust.)
A very good research paper was written by Sarah Gordon, IBM T.J.Watson Research Center, Richard Ford, and Joe Wells, Wells Research. It was named “Hoaxes & Hypes” and presented at the 7th Virus Bulletin International Conference in San Francisco, California, October 1-3, 1997. Follow this link to read it >>
The authors identify five major factors that most hoaxes and hypes have in common. These are: 1. trust in authority (attributing the story to people or entities we trust as authorities on the topic, for example “according to the latest study by IBM on computer security…”); 2. excitement (getting our attention and making it exciting enough to have us pass it on); 3. lack of appropriate scientific skepticism (something that could have been disproven with a little research, but is outside of most people’s common knowledge and few people will “kick the tires” to check out its authenticity); 4. Sense of importance or belonging (the recipient is “special” or somehow on the “inside” by having early access to this information and is being selected for their “special” status/skill/influence/popularity/trustworthiness); and 5. it furthers our own goals/self-interest/agenda (either by showing how “smart” we are, how we have early and special access to information or our need to either spread our own agendas, influence or help others).
If you examine many famous (and infamous) Internet hoaxes and hypes, you will find in most cases all of these are implicated. Recent statistics demonstrate that most online scams and frauds, like the Nigerian schemes and phishing, involve these same five factors. If we just stop a moment and consider each of them, many people could avoid becoming victims.