The internet travels at the speed of
light, literally, because it travels through fiber-optic cable and
that's what fiber-optic cable does.
The same speed of light that helps amusing videos,
like Obama Phone and
Bed Intruder, to
go viral helps people that want to scam or hoax us attack
blitzkrieg style. Sometimes it's funny, sometimes it's not.
Sometimes it's harmless, sometimes it's not.
There are a lot of scams and hoaxes out there. There
are lists, Top, Funniest, Best, even All Time, for internet scams
and hoaxes.
CNN
published a Top Ten list, and to save ink and paper I've summarized
it here:
Bill Gates reaches out to you (#8) to Help a Sick
Child (#9) by Forwarding a Warning to all your email contacts (#10)
to Dial 809 and contest their outstanding bill (#7) or, get the $5
Billion from Nigeria (#6) and in the name of all things holy please
Save Big Bird (#5) by sending $250 for the Cookie Recipe (#4) and
remember, Deodorant Gives You Cancer (#3) and this Last Picture
from the Observation Deck of the World Trade Center (#2) and
support Hillary Clinton's views on the 5 Cent Per Email Tax (#1).
One hoax, voted among most everyone's Top Ten Best
of All Time is "Lonelygirl15".
At first Lonelygirl15
appeared to be just an average, innocent YouTube blog of a
run-of-the-mill teenage girl. Until Lonelygirl15 started
giving out details of a bizarre cult that her family was involved
in that made them lock her in the house. Then, months later, it was
apparent that the videos were scripted, and delivered by a 19
year old actress.
Even though Lonelygirl15 wasn't
the victim of some strange cult that kept her locked in her house,
and even though the entire thing was just a hoax, the web series
remained popular until it ended. Because, it was funny, and
harmless.
Notre Dame football star, soon to be
multi-millionaire NFL Star, Manti Te'o doesn't find hoaxes funny
and harmless.
Notre Dame said a story that star Manti Te'o's
internet girlfriend had died of leukemia - a loss he said inspired
him all season and helped him lead the Irish to the BCS title game
- turned out to be a hoax apparently perpetrated against the
linebacker.
"To realize that I was the victim of what was
apparently someone's sick joke and constant lies was, and is,
painful and humiliating." " If anything good comes
of this, I hope it is that others will be far more guarded when
they engage with people online than I was."
Phil Hartman,
if his really real wife hadn't shot him really real dead, might
have said on Saturday Night Live: "Boo-hoo, you had me then
you lost me.".
After considerable research, it seems Top Ten's are
hard to complete, and get sloppy with filler items to reach the
magic number ten, so here are my Top 6 hoaxes:
6) The hoax that there was a hoax, other than Manti
Te'o trying to get more popularity for his Heisman Trophy
bid. Not funny, not harmless.
5) You can recharge an iPhone by plugging it into an
onion in a glass of Gatorade. Funny and harmless.
4) Al Sharpton. Not funny, not harmless.
3) CNN's #1; Hillary Clinton thinking the 5 cent
email tax was real. Funny, not harmless.
2) Hoax convincing fans of Justin Bieber to shave
their heads because he has cancer. Beebs, thankfully, does not have
cancer. Funny and harmless.
1) My soon to be special email offer where anyone
with 501(c)(3) status can get new multi-millionaire Manti
Te'o's cell phone number, just $69.95 plus S&H.
Funny, or not, harmless, or not, that's your call,
and that's Cocktail Talk.
