Lest I perpetuate the hoaxes I seek to help you debunk, let me state before you read any further, the following stories are Internet hoaxes. They are not true. They are utterly false and borderline ridiculous. Do NOT e-mail them to your friends or my life up to now will have been lived in vain. Okay, maybe that’s dramatic, but my objective is to help you avoid perpetuating one or more of these hoaxes.

Did you know that Bill Gates is sharing his fortune with you? He’ll send you thousands of dollars for beta testing his e-mail tracking software. Just forward an e-mail message to everyone in your address book and somehow Mr. Gates will send you $5,000. We truly live in a magical time.

Maybe while making thousands of dollars testing Bill’s e-mail system you’ll be contacted by a millionaire Nigerian civil servant needing your help to escape Nigeria with $21 million dollars. In exchange for your help and $10,000 of your money, your newfound millionaire friend will share 20% of the proceeds with you. That’s four million dollars minus a few thousand. What a deal.

And if you’re robbed while at the ATM getting your money for the would-be Nigerian millionaire, remember to simply put your PIN in backwards and the police will be notified of your situation and immediately arrive to rescue you.

If instead you decide to cook a frog…it’s widely accepted that if you throw it into boiling water, it will quickly jump out. But if you put the frog in a pan of cold water and raise the temperature almost imperceptibly, the frog will cook to death without even attempting to escape.

As I warned you earlier, all of these stories are false. According to Snopes.com and Dr. Hutchinson, “The legend [about slowly boiling a frog] is entirely incorrect!” It jumps out. Who knew?

The ATM myth, like any good urban legend, is based partly in fact. According to Snopes.com, the system has been patented and legislation was proposed in Georgia, but to date, this system has not been implemented. Most people can hardly remember their PIN forwards let alone backwards with a gun to their head. And if they did remember, by the time the police arrived the robber and your money would be long gone.

And do I really need to tell you the Nigerian story is false? Apparently I do because also according to Snopes.com, by 1997 Americans had lost more than $100 million in this scam. Maybe I’m in the wrong business.

So what does this have to do with technology? Technology distributes, perpetuates and expands these hoaxes. Or rather people do. Remember, guns don’t shoot people, people shoot people. Don’t be one of those people. Technology can also stop these hoaxes. Before you forward a tear-jerking story of a man who had to choose between saving a train of people or saving his son, or about McDonald’s importing foreign beef, or about the Swiffer WetJet causing the demise of household pets (all are false), search the story at UrbanLegends.About.com, Snopes.com or simply Google it.

Friends don’t let friends perpetuate hoaxes. I’m your friend.

Technically yours.



Greg helps small to midsize businesses with computer technology needs and may be reached via e-mail at gregbott@bottinc.com or at 601-616-8509. Greg’s professional experience includes consulting for Price Waterhouse’s Strategic Consulting Group, working as a Program Manager for Microsoft Corporation, and serving as Chief Technology Officer for several companies. He has a Master of Science in Software Engineering degree from the University of Texas and has presented at technical

conferences across the world. He has

published over a dozen works including the Microsoft Press Windows Server 2003

Network Infrastructure textbook, and the Microsoft ASP.Net Security Operations Guide.