Hoaxes, Scams and Sleight of Hand

Great Lakes Whale Watching: real or hoax?

Classroomhelp.com thought this was a nice activity for students...

But they later retracted their opinion.  NO WHALES IN THE GREAT LAKES!!!

HOAX!

Are there octopi in the Northwest rainforests?

Note the disclaimer at the bottom: "This site is not associated with any school or educational organization,
other than the Kelvinic University branch of the Wild Haggis Conservation Society."

Does this seem real to you?

No--It's a HOAX!

Dihydrogen Monoxide: is it an environmental threat?

What is DHMO?

(Hint, also written as H2O)

What else about this page looks suspicious? Would a scientific organization sell t-shirts or South Park Books?  

NO--It's a HOAX, and a cleverly designed one at that. DHMO is water.

This site says it offers a "True Historical Examination" of Martin Luther King, Jr. Doe this site seem to provide an unbiased look at Dr. King?

Note that this site is hosted by Stormfront.org, an organization whose Ideology and Philosophy discussion forum is on the "Foundations for White Nationalism"

Do you think these people would provide a fair and unbiased view of Dr. King?

Why do you think they chose the website URL (www.martinlutherking.org) that they did?

Yes.  It's a HOAX!

The title of this organization, "Institute for Historical Review" seems benign and scholarly in nature.  Is this a scholarly organization, or something else?

Or could the IHR be a neo-Nazi front, and a denier of the Holocaust?

What do you think?

Medical information is particularly susceptible to hoax.  This page, from the University of Santa Anita, discusses Women and AIDS.  What looks suspicious about this page?  (No peeking at the bottom of the page)

Do these claims make sense?  Who is Dr. Fueul?  What do we know about University of Santa Anita? Do any of the references check out?

This page was created to teach people about internet hoaxes.  Do you think people would mistake it for real medical information?

This is not the official Whitehouse homepage.

Neither is this.  Nor is www.whitehouse.com (NOT SAFE FOR WORK).

This is the official White House site.  Note the ".gov" extension to the address.

"GlobalWarming.org is a project of the Cooler Heads Coalition, formerly a sub-group of the National Consumer Coalition, but now run as an informal and ad-hoc group focused on dispelling the myths of global warming by exposing flawed economic, scientific, and risk analysis."

This website is paid for and maintained by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a non-profit public policy organization dedicated to advancing the principles of free enterprise and limited government. [The CEI believes] that individuals are best helped not by government intervention, but by making their own choices in a free marketplace.

Does this site provide unbiased information, or does it advocate for a particular position?

Is this the official site of Fredericton, New Brunswick?

Or is this?  How can you tell?

The John Siegenthaler Sr. case points out that almost anything can be asserted on the Internet, and that hoaxes, scams and lies can be hurtful and widely repeated. Why would you question an entry in Wikipedia?

Searching out a hoax?

Try Snopes.com...

...or FactCheck.org for political information...

...or Quackwatch to track down health frauds...

...or take a look at Don't Spread That Hoax!

You can use tools like the "Whois Lookup" to find out who has registered a particular web address.

Use checklists like this one to help you evaluate the information you're viewing.  The prompts provided will lead you through the evaluation process and help you select the best sources.