You'll know by now that I'm a bit of a web junkie and a proper info whore, and I do come across loads of weird and wonderful things online. A lot of it is perhaps a bit too unsavoury to share on a public spirited forum but hey, we all need a hobby, right?
One thing that I have noticed over the years is the amount of incredible hoaxes that the internet seems to give rise to. If you cast your minds back to the heady days of 1996 / 1997 you might remember the so-called Roswell footage which was meant to show real alien autopsy footage, but was later revealed to be a huge hoax. This footage was released commercially around the time that the internet was just starting to break into mainstream consciousness and no doubt the online community helped propagate the rumours that the footage was real.
Since then of course the web has been home to countless hoaxes. A lot of them are sadly ill-willed hoaxes such as viral hoaxes that try to get you to part with your bank account numbers and so on, but there have been some real corkers over the years. Does anyone remember the big fear that the Millennium Bug caused in 1999? Hmmm, that really had everyone fooled.
The Blair Witch Project used the web to basically fool everyone that the movie was real. It almost worked too! This was viral marketing (as it is now called) and was essentially an ingenious hoax designed to advertise a low budget horror film.
Some of the hoaxes I've come across include these gems, all of which have had millions of people fooled:
Nostrodamus predicted the 9/11 attacks in this prophecy:
"...on the 11 day of the 9 month that... two metal birds would crash into two tall statues... in the new city... and the world will end soon after"
This was, of course, all a big hoax.
Mark Hamill is dead! The legendary actor who played Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars movies died in a car accident when returning from a surfing trip with his son. This hoax is fairly recent and had loads of people fooled - even me! Ahem, not that I'll ever admit that. Jeff Goldblum, Russell Crowe, Will Smith, and Paris Hilton have also had internet hoax death stories published.
A letter to Mel Gibson from Steven Spielberg. Following Gibson's anti-Jewish drunken outburst, a letter from one of Hollywood's most notable Jewish directors appeared which shot down Gibson in a spectacular fashion. If only it were true...
The 9/11 Tourist Guy photo
This photo got everywhere, and sent chills down the spine of millions. The photo was taken at the top of the WTC tower just as the plane came into view. It was of course all a hoax.
Giant animals. The web is stuffed with these little gems and they always make me laugh. But, plenty still fall for it!
Apart from the everyday hoaxes from hackers pretending to be HSBC or PayPal, have any of you come across any good hoaxes and more importantly, have you fallen for any?
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