There’s all sorts of spammy stuff out there. Fake news stories telling us some celebrity died, that Big Foot’s been found (again), or that some new conspiracy’s been confirmed by leaked government docs. But if we believed everything we read on the Internet, we'd think that fairies did exist, Chicago has frozen over, and Dennis Rodman is besties with a dangerous dictator (oh, wait that’s actually true). For our latest post, we’ll take a look at the top 24 Internet hoaxes you’ve probably heard of that are most definitely not true. But admit it, for at least a split second you totally thought they were. . .

1) Sochi Opening Ceremony Technician Found Dead

Dailycurrant.com leaked a story on Facebook that claimed the man responsible for orchestrating the botched Olympic Ring show at the Sochi Opening Ceremonies was found dead the next day. During the ceremony, animatronic snowflakes were supposed to transform into the Olympic Rings; but the last snowflake never changed shape. Though Boris Avdeyev’s body had multiple stab wounds and bruises, a “lead investigator” ruled it an accidental death.

“Maybe Mr. Avdeyev should have thought twice before he screwed up the Olympics,” the investigator said. “Accidents tend to happen to people who betray Russia.” But before you jump to conclusions about Putin pulling a Kim Jong-Un, be aware that the Daily Currant is a satire website with this disclaimer: “Our stories are purely fictional.” This is one of many examples where just a little bit of follow-up research for online news can point to fact or fiction.

2) Facebook Said Vin Diesel Is Dead

A Facebook post from last month said “RIP Vin Diesel 1967-2014” and included a video link with a warning, “scenes are not suitable for young audiences.” Following Paul Walker’s tragic death, the video leads us to believe Vin Diesel reached a similar fate, and that this time it was caught on camera. But put your fears to rest! Diesel is alive and well. So well that he's grooving to Katy Perry and Beyonce, and he’s not ashamed.

3) Don’t Talk To Angela

The “Talking Angela” app is a real thing, but the warnings around it aren't. It’s a basic app from iTunes that allows children to interact with Angela, a cat who lives at an outdoor Parisian cafe. She responds to children's gestures and mimics what they say with feline French mannerisms (whatever that means). It’s all innocent enough, but soon after it was released, bogus warnings began to surface on Facebook telling parents not to use the app. The alerts started in 2011, though they made new rounds just this month as a chain letter on Facebook.

The notice claims the app is a malicious website that collects personal data from children by taking secret pictures of them and asking their names and where they go to school. The app does have a chat function for Angela (a virtual bot, not a cat) to respond to a user’s voice and texts, but it doesn’t share or collect personal information. Considering there are a slew of similar apps–“Talking Tom Cat,” “Talking Ben the Dog,” and “Talking Gina the Giraffe”–Angela’s nothing more than another benign cartoon with an annoying accent.

4) Deepest Condolences For Dishing Out Malware

Just last month, a round of emails circulated from various funeral homes catching users’ attention with subject lines like “Passing of your friend.” A so-called funeral home receptionist would offer their “deepest prayers of condolence” and invite the reader to attend the funeral service on a set date. It would follow the message with a hyperlink that promised detailed information about the service details. Grieving message recipients would then be thrown off by an even worse surprise of having their computer attacked by malicious hardware after downloading a ZIP file. Talk about a depressing chain of events for whoever falls victim to this scam.

5) Flash Your Brights, Risk Your Life

If you’re driving at night and see a car without its headlights, don’t flash your brights. You could be playing a Bloods “initiation game.” Even in suburban Minnesota at 2 a.m. on a Tuesday. The story goes that a new gang member going through initiation drives with no headlights. The passengers of the first car to flash their brights at him would become his new murder victims. This email warning has been circulating since 1993 and has resurfaced as recently as 2010. Despite a Community Policing Manager at Chubb Security (in South Africa) sending a warning to employees, the supposed initiation has been repeatedly dismissed as a hoax.

6) A Serial Killer Uses Baby Recordings To Trap Victims

This email claimed that a serial killer was on the loose in Baton Rouge, LA, and was enticing victims out of their homes by playing a tape recording of a crying baby. In 2002, there was actually a Baton Rouge serial killer named Derrick Todd Lee, but he wasn’t known to lure victims with baby recordings. The supposed ruse was actualized in a 2007 episode of Criminal Minds, where one of the characters referenced a man named Derrick Todd Lee using a tape recording of a crying baby to lure women out of their homes.

7) Crying Children Lure Women To Danger

In a more recent incarnation of a criminal-luring-women story, a round of Facebook warnings told of women being led astray by crying children asking for help. In the letter, a small child supposedly holds a piece of paper with an address, asking passing women to take him there. Once the woman arrives at the address with the child or children, she is overpowered by a gang of rapists. A 2011 version, purportedly sent by the County Sheriff Department, claimed to come from CNN and Fox News stories; a 2005 version goes into more disturbing detail of one supposed victim’s story. Despite the police and sheriff department warnings, there have been no documented cases of this tactic.

8) These Safety Tips Will Save Your Life!

A list of crime safety tips started making the rounds in 2001, grabbing readers’ attention with catchy headlines like “Safety Tips for Women” or “Written by a Cop.” While the tips have some validity, they can be misleading or entirely unrealistic. How many people, for example, expect to be stuffed into the back of a trunk or be carjacked at gunpoint? Even if these unlikely scenarios did take place, the safety tips aren't absolute. Oh, and what a surprise. . . tip no. 9 talks about a friend who “heard a crying baby on her porch” and was warned by police not to open the door.

9) 112 Is The New 911

A series of recirculating email messages claim that dialing 112, instead of 911, in any U.S. state will direct a cell phone call to local police. The 2012 hoax derives from messages a decade earlier that claim #77 as the number to dial in an emergency. There is a #77 function for some states to connect to Highway Patrol, and 112 is an emergency number in Europe; but neither of these numbers replace 911. The 112 combo will always be a washed-up R&B band of the ‘90s, not a number to dial in emergencies.

10) Two-Way Mirrors Mean Peeping Toms Can Watch You Change!

This one’s a classic. A spam message told readers how to detect a two-way mirror when using private facilities like bathrooms, hotel rooms, changing rooms, etc. It cited instances of female changing rooms with mirrors that also served as hidden windows, the old message plays on our incessant paranoia of privacy breaches and invasive technology. Relevant or not, the advice is just dumb. If you’re still not sure if you’re looking at a real mirror after doing the “fingernail test,” the message tells you to throw a chair at the mirror and see if it goes through. Fail that test, and you’re left with a hefty fine and probably an arrest for destruction of property.

Instead, let’s debunk this myth. The two-way mirror, or a “transparent mirror,” is distinguishable because it’s set into the wall, not hung on a wall like regular mirrors. It will create a hollow sound when you knock your knuckles on it, and if you cup your hands around your eyes to block out the light, you’ll be able to see a hollow space beyond the mirror. It may come in handy to identify a transparent mirror at, say, a Greyhound station or an investigation room, but for your daily browsing and bathroom-using, your privacy hasn’t been threatened.

11) A Car Alarm Deters Burglars

This tidbit came out in 2006, but you may have heard it through word-of-mouth or chain letters sent to you by your grandma. A spam email tells you that if you think someone is in your house, keep your car keys by your bed so you can set off the car alarm. That will scare a burglar away because the alarm will attract attention from neighbors. But really, when was the last time you looked out your window to see if a car alarm meant a vehicle was actually being broken into? And especially if it goes off at 3 a.m.? The flaw here is that, sure, an alarm sounding off might scare a burglar, but so will an actual house alarm. And so will turning on a light, making loud noises, and calling the police. If the burglar has any intent to harm you, no car alarm with deter them. Disregard this piece of advice as being about as useful as the safety tips we mentioned earlier.

12) FedEx Can’t Deliver Your Package

Last year a bogus FedEx email message made the rounds. It tells you, its “customer,” that a parcel has arrived at the local post office, but it can’t be delivered. You’re asked to download a postal receipt. Don’t do it! Think about it: Why is a parcel being delivered to a post office? And why would FedEx be relaying this message from the post office? The letter looks official, with an order number and delivery date, but no credible business should be asking you to download a form without contacting them first. FedEx posted a site update warning users of these fraudulent emails, but they’re not the only ones who’ve fallen victim to email scam.

13) Verify Your Airline Ticket Here

American Airlines has had similar troubles as FedEx. Like the FedEx scandal, people with an American Airlines account received an email confirming their flight order and instructing them to download a link to print their tickets. The hoax was intended to lure people who didn’t remember buying a recent ticket and wanted to check the ticket details, but downloading the link would open up malicious extensions. American Airlines posted a warning about the scheme.

14) Wells Fargo Has A Great Loan Modification Offer

And the list of big-business email fraud keeps growing… Posing as Wells Fargo Bank officials, scammers have been spamming inboxes this month with loan modification offers. Citing users’ personal information, using government seals, and including forms that are typical for legit loan alteration offers, the messages are part of a sophisticated fraud scheme that preys on desperate homeowners who are barely holding onto a property. This scam is circulating in Southwest Florida (are we really surprised it's in Florida?), but similar hoaxes are also circulating across the country.

15) Red Cross Asks For Disaster Relief Aid

It’s one thing to pick on hopeless homeowners; it’s another to pawn money off international humanitarian causes. This bogus emails asked for online donations to benefit “over 1.5 million children affected with quake/tsunami disaster across Asia” after the 2004 tsunami. It included an invalid CNN link and a plea to help the poor and sick (“for God loves a cheerful giver”) by having donors wire money. Between the terrible spelling, bad grammar, and lack of authenticity, this message has so many red flags. But donations tend to pour in like mad after any major disaster, so a name like Red Cross International could be enticing to a gullible do-gooder. Let this email chain serve as a reminder to do some research before you donate money to any relief effort.

16) Desperate Kids Ask Grandpa For Money

If you have any grandparents at assisted living homes, you’ll see this warning plastered all over announcement boards. Though it can target family members or close friends, this “grandparent scam” is usually directed at unsuspecting grandparents who don’t know much about phone or Internet scams, and who will dish out money immediately to help a grandkid in need. It goes something like this: An impersonator calls up saying, “Hi Pops. It’s Christopher.” Or they’ll say they’re a police officer, lawyer, or doctor at a hospital. They’ll claim they’re in a foreign city and need money to bail them out of jail or some bad circumstance. They’ll ask grandma or grandpa not to tell mom and dad (“They’ll get upset!”), and then to wire money ASAP. The scary thing is that scammers sometimes know the grandchild’s name, the grandparent’s name, or a realistic scenario that makes the call sound credible. But how? Social media. A person posts travel photos on their site, and a scammer who finds access to their relatives’ phone numbers has enough ammo to sucker sweet old grandpa into wiring thousands of dollars to a foreign account.

17) Chinese Detainees Need Grandpa’s Help, Too

A similar scam has been circulating in China. After local authorities cracked down on brothels in Dongguan, a Chinese border town, con artists came out of the woodwork to ask for cash from unsuspecting victims. They’d call random households claiming they’d been detained and needed money. Considering Dongguan is China’s "Sin City,” a son claiming he’s been detained is not far off from a 20-something arrested in Vegas and calling dad for some bail money.

The crackdown also led to online phishing scams diverting users to new sites, telling them the “boss” of the sex sites had been apprehended. The scams were so effective that a Chinese Internet security company reported a 12-percent increase in malware attacks in one day from porn sites containing “Dongguan” as a keyword. These phishing scams are a cyber epidemic.

18) Police Tell Actress To Open New Account

Not even celebrities are immune to a basic phone sham. Chinese actress Tang Wei was swindled out of $34,692 after a bogus call asked her to wire money to a local bank. The details aren’t clear, but the premise fits with a common ruse in China where a scammer poses as a police officer and calls victims to say their bank accounts have been compromised. The scammer then asks the target to transfer money to a new account set up by police. As one of China’s big-name actresses, Tang’s loss isn’t so devastating; but it is to millions of others who’ve been victims of similar scams.

19) Get Paid To Do Nothing!!

In an unstable job economy with people hopelessly searching for employment, fake job advertisements are another popular scheme for Internet fraudsters. They’ll recruit victims by creating fake job listings and asking applicants to provide back account information or tax and credit card numbers to pay for a mandatory job training kit. Claiming high wages, easy job responsibilities, and flexibility to work from home, these ads would appeal to desperate job seekers who are doing the bulk of their searches on Internet job sites. One small biotech company, run by a New Zealand woman and her husband, was ripped off by U.S. scammers that copied her website and posted fake job advertisements in her company’s name.

20) Your Account Is Safe From Hackers

Then there’s the issue of social media accounts being cloned. Hacked Twitter and Facebook accounts send out dozens of private messages to friends and followers, offering links to malware or asking for banking information. It’s damaging to both the victims who fall for it, and to the account holders with a reputation at stake.

21) Find Out Who’s Been Viewing Your Profile

A Facebook message, which circulated in 2012, tells users that by installing a “profile viewer” Facebook extension, they can figure out who’s been looking at their profile. How great is that? Now you’ll find out if an ex has been creeping on you, or if you’ve had unwanted visitors snooping around your site. It just sounds too good to be true! Because it is. The message has shown up in many forms, with a series of pages embellished with fake security and award badges. It looks authentic until you realize that Facebook has never put graphics on their links, and “100% working” means absolutely nothing.

Attempting to download the “extension” leads users to online surveys and tries to trick them into installing another rogue app that spams friends’ inboxes. Other variants even harbor malicious browser extensions. So alas, you’re going to have to keep wondering if that special someone you just friended has been longingly browsing through your pics.

22) Verify Your Apple Account, Or Lose It

This hoax is part of a phishing scam meant to trick recipients into giving personal details from their Apple accounts. Citing an “ongoing commitment to provide the best possible service and protection” to customers, the automated message asks that every customer update their accounts using new SSL servers to avoid losing online access to their accounts. The link leads to a phony login page asking for name, address, birth date, and payment information. Once you’ve given up your information, you’re redirected to a genuine page on Apple’s website. It’s a dangerous scam because it looks so real, and it’s one of many account phishing scams that can steal your identity and your money.

23)“MOST TERRIFYING ACCIDENT EVER!!!”

Even if this screams SCAM to you, admit that you hovered over the link for at least a second. Captions like this (“BBC News Check What She Did” or “Get Your Free $200 Coupon!”) create sensational headlines on Facebook posts or email messages to get you to click the link and promote the page to your friends before investigating the claims to see if they’re actually true.

But wait, before you get what you want, you’ve got to compile a quick survey so your personal information can be supplied to sketchy marketing schemes. Or you’ll be tricked into downloading a rogue app, malicious browser extensions, or malware. Or you’re asked to provide your cell number so that you’ll be subscribed to extremely expensive SMS services. And even when you try to get out of this scam survey, you’re bombarded by alerts and “last-chance” notices to stay on the page. It’s a deep, dark rabbit hole of spam alerts, and you’ll never even get what you wanted. (The image, by the way, is completely fake.)

24) “[Shocking Video] Another Shark Attack in Hawaii!”

A surfer killed by a shark, and someone caught it on tape?? That’s a video worth seeing, even if you can’t stomach the gore. Not to worry, though. It’s actually just a screenshot of an open-mouthed shark on a Hawaiian beach. Like the spam survey, users are told to “Share” or “Like” the page and post a comment, which then promotes the offer to their Facebook friends. It’s called “clickjacking,” where clicking on links to play or promote a video gives attackers authority to send you messages and spam your inbox with malicious links. Forget the shark attack. This spam attack is much worse for your computer and your social media reputation.

Have you run across any big scams or bogus viral posts that should be added to our list? Tell us your opinion in the comments below!

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