This elective was interesting and entertaining. I got several good laughs while looking over the websites in this activity. I especially enjoyed the image of President Bush and his father fishing in New Orleans during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. If you do not choose this as an elective, I suggest for entertainment purposes (not like we all have nothing better to do, but you might not) to check out the Urban Legend Image Quiz: Fake or Real? Some of the images you could tell were definitely fakes, but other pictures were surprisingly valid. Also, checking out the list of most popular myths and rumors that are circulating on the web was fun.

This activity gives you good information on how to recognize these hoax emails and what to do about them. It is recommended that you do not circulate warnings without first checking with an authoritative source such as your computer system security administrator, incident handling team, or antivirus vendor. Warnings issued by security response teams (CIAC, CERT) are digitally signed by PGP (electronic signature). If you download a warning from a team's web site or validate the PGP (cryptographic) signature, you can probably trust that it may have some merit. Chain letters usually do not have the name and contact information of the original sender so it is virtually impossible to check the credibility of the sender. If there is a person’s name and contact information, try the person’s web page, company web page or one of the hoax sites to check out the messages credibility. Legitimate warnings will always have complete contact information from the person sending the message and will often be signed with a PGP signature. If you cannot validate the information, it is best not to forward these emails and load up the system with junk mail.

Interestingly enough, I had just received two of the hoax emails this week that are mentioned in several of the Urban myths and legends articles and websites - the 809 Area Code and the one about getting removed from the cell phone telemarketer call list. They were forwarded to me by my sister and my parents. Thank goodness I just deleted these and did not waste any valuable time paying attention to their content. I have also received several of the missing children emails in the past. These are apparently hokey emails too. It is amazing to me that some people have nothing better to do than to make up such an elaborate scheme or email warning. I would hope that if they were that computer savvy, they would be smart enough to spend their time doing something constructive, not destructive. Apparently, there are many people online without too much common sense.

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