• From celebrity death hoaxes to crazy iPhone maintenance tips, we count fifteen internet
deceptions!
15 – Mars Will Look as Big as the Moon, • This strange hoax first surfaced in 2003,
and has recurred every year since.
It usually comes with the promise that no one alive today has ever seen this phenomenon
and that it won't happen again for hundreds of years.
• On August 27th 2003, Mars did get closer than it had in 50,000 years, but its distance
was still 144 times further away than that of Earth’s moon.
It wasn’t viewable without a telescope and obviously wasn’t anywhere near the size
of our moon.
• When this load of moon cheese comes tumbling through your Facebook feed for the twelfth
year running, don’t believe a word.
14 – Richard Gere and the Gerbil, • This one’s more an urban legend, but,
with no evidence to substantiate the claims, it’s unlikely there’s any truth to it.
The story goes that several years ago (presumably after 1990’s Pretty Woman) actor Richard
Gere was admitted to an LA emergency room with a foreign object lodged in his rectum.
• The object, as you’ve probably guessed, was a gerbil, though reports vary about whether
it was dead or alive.
This strange sex practice, known on the internet as ‘gerbilling’, is often attributed to
gay men, though there’s no evidence linking it to any known culture or subculture.
While it’s probable that someone, somewhere has tried this, it’s definitely more made-up
gross-out story than genuine pastime.
• Richard Gere is straight-laced and unassuming.
He doesn’t court controversy like other, wilder celebrities, so it’s highly unlikely
this is true.
Maybe if the rumour was about George Michael …
13 – Facebook to Charge Users, • One of the most persistent serves of bullshit
pie.
Since 2009, bogus claims that Facebook plans to charge users for even their most basic
membership service have had social media junkies trembling the world over.
• The claims regularly come and go without any of the reported changes coming into effect,
yet every year users continue to fall for it.
12 – One Millionth Visitor!, • Congratulations!
You’re the one millionth viewer of this video!
Please insert a piece of white bread into your disc drive to claim your prize!
It’s hard to believe anyone ever fell for this level of blatant bullshittery, but it
caused the circulation of a lot of early 2000s adware.
• Other common web lies include users indicating they’ve ‘read all the Terms & Conditions’,
and exaggeratory acronyms like laughing out loud.
I mean, has anyone in the whole of history actually rolled on the floor laughing?
11 – Dead Celebrity Hoaxes, • Fake celebrity deaths are your garden
variety internet fib.
Every month or so, these sorts of rumours spread like a rash across social media.
The fake claims usually centre on minor celebrities – often those who’ve retreated from the
limelight following past success.
This kind of celebrity no longer receives much media attention, so it’s easier to
build a convincing death hoax around them.
• Recent hoax targets have included Seinfeld actor Wayne Knight, who famously became dinner
for a Dilophosaurus in Jurassic Park.
Another was Home Alone star, Macaulay Culkin.
Culkin’s emaciated looks gave credence to claims he’d suffered a drug overdose.
• In 2009, Scrubs star Zach Braff reportedly called his mum to assure her that he was very
much still alive after an internet rumour had her fearing the worst.
‘No, Ma, still here.
It’s those damn internet kids again!’
10 – Doritos Ebola, • Those turkeys from 4chan are at it again!
Capitalising on Ebola hysteria and general human stupidity, users from the popular website
created mass panic by spreading rumours about a supposed Ebola outbreak at a Doritos chips
factory.
• Though there was absolutely no basis to any of the claims, the story went viral on
Twitter, thanks to a few doctored CNN reports.
9 – Kidney Thieves in New Orleans, • In the lead-up to the 1997 Mardi Gras
festivities, rumours spread of a ring of local organ thieves that were reportedly planning
a large-scale operation.
Their objective?
Steal the kidneys of tourists and drunken revellers.
• The organ harvesting legend had been spread before, but this particular chain of emails
and faxes (hey, it was the Nineties!) became so popular that the New Orleans police were
forced to issue a statement.
They refuted the rumour, fearing the city would lose revenue because scared travellers
were cancelling their Mardi Gras plans.
8 – lonelygirl15, • This one’s admittedly pretty cool: in
2006, an average teenage girl named Bree started video-blogging about her life under the username
‘lonelygirl15’.
People tuned in to listen to her average teenage problems until the updates took an unexpectedly
sinister turn.
All of a sudden details emerged about the bizarre cult her family was involved in.
It turned out the whole thing was a scripted video series, sort of like the found footage
horror phenomenon.
• It successfully fooled a lot of people, though.
Bree, who turned out to be fictional, even had a MySpace page, which she’d use to interact
with fans.
7 – France’s Post-6 p.m. Work Ban, • Working hard or hardly working?
In 2014, The Guardian posted a factually inaccurate article suggesting that the French government
had made it illegal for its citizens to work or take work-related emails after 6 p.m.
• The ‘law’ The Guardian refers to is actually just an agreement that affects only
a minority of French workers in very specific industries.
The 6 p.m. part of this pseudo curfew seems to have been plucked from thin air, as there
is no mention of any specific time in the agreement.
• This shows the effect a misreporting from a reputable media source can have.
6 – iFallacies, • Over the years, Apple mania has grown
and grown.
Unfortunately, our culture seems to grow paradoxically stupider as technology advances.
To illustrate this, some internet pranksters created a string of hoax memes and videos
about the most popular Apple products.
• One video used pseudo science to demonstrate how you could charge your iPod with nothing
but an onion and a glass of Gatorade.
Sadly, thousands tried it!
I’m shaking my head, but at least a few onion farmers enjoyed a spike in sales.
• Another hoax ad tricked iPhone users into believing the iOS 7 update had the power to
make their handsets waterproof.
Worse still, a recent hoax had iPhone 6 users trying to wirelessly charge their device with
their microwaves.
Don’t.
Do.
This.
5 – Syrian Hero Boy, • This comes hot on the heels of Kony 2012,
a controversial viral video that aimed to convey a serious political message.
Syrian Hero Boy is a minute-long clip of a Syrian boy in a war zone.
The boy takes heavy gunfire, but is able to get back up to save a nearby girl.
• The video had reasonable production values and was believed to be authentic; however,
sceptics who studied the footage noted that the boy, who is shot in the chest, falls forward,
and that it is extremely unlikely a child could sustain the depicted injuries and get
back up.
• The film’s Norwegian director, Lars Klevberg, said he made the film to bring media
attention to the harsh reality of children living in war zones.
4 – Internet Wins Taylor Swift Concert for Deaf School,
• In 2012, thousands of Facebook users banded together to hijack a contest in which the
grand prize was a live concert by Grammy-winning superstar Taylor Swift.
Although over 14,000 schools participated, the runaway winner – thanks to some internet
vote fixing – was Boston’s Horace Mann School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.
The prank’s implication was that only the hard of hearing could appreciate Swift’s
music.
• Unfortunately, the school had to be disqualified once the internet-born deception was discovered,
but Swift took the classy route, offering the institution a cash donation and free concert
tickets to any interested students.
3 – Kentucky Fried Compact Disc, • In 2009, American R&B star Ciara became
the target of a strange and unconvincing hoax marketing campaign.
Apparently, some Photoshop wizard whipped up a fake coupon for a KFC meal deal that
featured Ciara’s latest album as a free extra.
• The image was amateurish and the deal unlikely – a large Original Recipe sandwich
and drink for $4.99, with a new release CD, worth … whatever CDs went for in 2009 … thrown
in absolutely free!
Still, people bought into this, and Ciara was slammed by critics for what was perceived
to be a desperate marketing campaign.
2 – Redheads Face Extinction, • Many websites and newspapers have reported
that redheads will one day die out.
It simply isn’t true.
• Redheads are something of an anomaly, representing about 1% of the world’s population.
The gene that governs hair colour is recessive, meaning both parents must have a copy in order
to produce a redheaded child.
4% of humans carry the gene responsible for red hair; you don’t have to have red hair
to possess this gene, meaning anyone could have it and not know it.
Two redheads are unlikely to make a brunette, but two brunettes can make a redhead.
• Recessive genes can become rare, but they don't disappear completely unless everyone
carrying the gene dies or fails to reproduce.
So while red hair may remain rare, enough people carry the gene that, barring global
catastrophe, redheads will continue to appear for some time.
Myth busted.
1 – Catfishing, • Catfishing is a growing trend of internet
fraud.
Perpetrators create false online identities – sometimes even entire social circles – with
the intent of manipulating others into romantic relationships.
• We’re not talking old or Photoshopped display pictures; catfishing is a highly sophisticated
form of deception.
It isn’t just gullible older internet users who are getting duped either; hundreds of
savvy young websurfers are also getting taken for a ride.
• These internet predators give a range of reasons for their scamming ways: some do
it for revenge; others are lonely, bored or curious.
Obviously, they prey on vulnerable people and can wreak huge emotional, psychological
and financial damage if given the chance.
• Internet daters, keep your wits about you.
That six foot leggy blonde who dodges your dinner invites yet requests you pay her phone
bill is probably too good to be true.