Why Hoax Emails Refuse To Die

Terence Eden — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 08:30:34 +0000

A rather persistent hoax has been floating around blogs, Facebook, and Twitter recently.

The "warning" alleges that a company put a flier through your letterbox claiming that they were unable to deliver a parcel - and that you need to contact them on 0906 6611911. Apparently this will immediately charge your phone £315.

Before we go any further, this "warning" is a hoax. The original scam was closed in 2005!

So, why is this propagating now? One reason that I can find is that this misinformation is being spread by Surrey Police.

When people normally receive a chain email they - I hope - do a little bit of research before spreading it to their address book or social network. But when it comes from a highly trusted source like the police, most people would assume that it's a legitimate source of information.

That said, there are a few "howlers" in this email that should cause anyone to think twice (and I don't mean the use of Comic Sans!).

Firstly, the CrimeStoppers URL - http://www.crimestoppers-uk.org/crime-prevention/helping-prevent-crime/scams/postal-delivery-scam - doesn't work! Clicking on it redirects you to the front page of the website. There's a tiny box on there about the scam. That redirects to http://www.crimestoppers-uk.org/fraud/types-of-fraud/common-scams/postal-scam-email-from-parcel-delivery-service-65455465 - which confirms it's a hoax.

It would be really good if CrimeStoppers could make the hoax warning more prominent on that page.

Secondly, if the police, Trading Standards, and the Post Office all know about this scam - why haven't they simply shut the number down?

Finally, it's always worth double-checking, no matter what the providence. A quick Google for 0906 611911 shows hundreds of reputable sites (and the Daily Mail) showing that this is a hoax.

From the perspective of memetics, it's interesting to see how a highly reputable source can be used for spreading the "infection" of a false meme.

Hopefully, Surrey Police will publish a retraction.

Do People Understand How To Use Twitter?

Terence Eden — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 11:29:32 +0000

No.

Learning a new skill is hard. Evidentially, twitter is too hard for some people. Robert Llewellyn was rightly confused when he saw this...

What Had Happened?

Turns out, the BBC had read a tweet to Robert Llewellyn and mistaken it for a tweet by him

When Is A Retweet Not A Retweet?

Look everyone! Stephen Fry wants to organise a protest!

(In fairness, many people made this mistake, I've picked Allison randomly)

What Really Happened

A user asked Stephen Fry to retweet her idea

Later confirmed

People retweeted her, then those people were retweeted. Then, like Chinese Whispers the original message got truncated, garbled and misinterpreted.

Can't People Read?

No. People, in my experience, read what they want to see.

The syntax of retweeting and replying is confusing to some people. Maybe it's me, but I picked it up fairly quickly - others struggle. This is then compounded by not bothering to check the original source.

As Churchill Mark Twain Sarah Palin Stephen Fry said "A lie can get halfway around the world before the truth has logged in to twitter."