Welcome

The World Wide Web is full of excellent sites you can visit to quickly and easily check out if you've been sent a hoax email. However, its difficult to know which ones to visit and which ones are up-to-date.

If the subject matter of your email doesn't feature in the top 10 list on the right (chances are it will), then check out the list below.

A rough rule of thumb is to check the email off against the following checklist.

• Does the email encourage you to forward it to everyone you know? Generaly bogus if it does.
• Does it credit its sources or provide links to a reputable website? Hoax emails rarely, if ever, do.
• Does it talk in vague terms like "last week" or "recently" rather than providing hard facts and dates? Hoax emails are almost always vague and open-ended.
• If it is a petition, or is asking you to send something to someone, does it provide a cut-off or expiry date? Hoax emails rarely do.

Break the Chain have a more extensive checklist here

If your email passes the checklist, then a simple Google search will often quickly identify if it is a hoax, or better still, searching one the sites listed below will generally yield good results very quickly.

Happy emailing
HoaxBuster

The first places I go to when I want to check out a potential hoax are

Break the Chain and

Snopes - Urban Legends Reference Pages

Other sites that have proved useful are:

Symantec Security Response - Hoax Page (a.k.a. Norton Antivirus)

McAfee.com - Virus Hoaxes