The Herald, Sharon, PA Published Monday, March 25, 2002

MERCER COUNTY

Cops issue urban legend warning

E-mails telling stories about free clothes or coupons, women nearly kidnapped by a businessman at a mall and Mel Gibson being disfigured as a young man are rampant on the Internet.

Anyone with e-mail has probably gotten a plethora of similar stories that are actually tall tales and the Pennsylvania State Police are warning people not to pass those tales on to other people.

Hundreds of urban legends are already circulating and new variations appear almost every day, police said.

The number of hoaxes and urban legends spreading by computer, fax and word of mouth, police said.

"In lieu of the truth, the teller of an urban legend relies on good story telling and the citing of an 'authoritative' word-of--mouth source, typically 'a friend of a friend.' Like the traditional folklore, urban legends are repeated many times and tend to undergo several revisions as they are recounted," a police news release said.

Police said ways to detect an urban legend are:

  • Note whether the story was told as if it were true such as "This is a true story . . ."

  • Look for statements like, "This really happened to a friend of a friend" or "the wife of a co-worker."

  • Have you heard the same story more than once, from different sources, with different characters or details?"

  • Consider whether there is evidence to indicate the story you have heard is false or if there are common sense reasons to disbelieve it.

  • Does the story seem too good, too horrible, or too funny to be true?

  • Did you get the story from a legitimate news source such as a newspaper or a magazine?

    To learn more about urban legends or to see if a story you have received is listed check www.scambusters.org, www.urbanlegends.com, or http://urbanlegends.about.com/



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