Ok, I'm shamelessly lifting this from one of my favorite websites, UrbanLegends.about.com, but I think it's for a good cause: public education. Listed here are that website's author's picks for Top 10 Net Hoaxes/Urban Legends of 2001. What does this mean? It means that these messages were circulated around the internet proporting to be true--but they weren't.
Personally, I think it's funny, but that's only because I tend to laugh at how gullible people are and the preposterous things they'll believe just because "they got it in an email from someone they know." Also, lest anyone think that this amusement betrays a sense of superiority, I'd like to publicly remind people that I was taken in by #5, "Snowball, the Giant Mutant Cat of Ontario".
I highly reccommend going to the website and browsing these fine examples of folklore. To see this article, go to http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/weekly/aa010902a.htm .
By David Emery
Those who predicted doom and gloom for the start of the new millennium weren't far off, as it turned out, though for the most part, because of an arithmetical error (calculating the beginning of the millennium at 2000 instead of 2001), they had the year wrong. In any case, 2001 won't be soon forgotten, mainly due to the lingering horror of what are now euphemistically referred to as "the events of September 11."
Along with the horror came new folklore — rumors, urban legends and hoaxes, so many and so widespread in such a short space of time that were we to compile a Top 10 list based on circulation alone it would consist entirely of items related to the terrorist attacks.
This list is not scientific, then, nor definitive. It is largely based on popularity, but tempered subjectively to arrive at a reasonable sampling of the whole range of topics deemed folklore-worthy over the course of one very long year.
Here, for your edification and pleasure, is our adjusted-for-terrorism list of the Top 10 Net Hoaxes, Rumors and Urban Legends of 2001:
1. Nostradamus Prophesied the World Trade Center Attack
Circulating within 24 hours of the terror attacks of September 11, this "prophecy" attributed to 16th-century seer Nostradamus was soon to become the most-forwarded email of 2001. It was spooky because it seemed — properly "interpreted" — to predict not only the WTC tragedy, but the advent of World War III. Trouble was, Nostradamus didn't write it. A college student did.
2. The Tourist Guy
His was one of the most recognizable faces of 2001, right up there with G.W. Bush and Osama bin Laden. The nerdy "Tourist Guy," posing obliviously for a snapshot on the observation deck of one of the World Trade Center towers as a wayward jetliner loomed in the background, popped up on computer screens in every corner of the world in the weeks following the terrorist attacks. The photo was quickly debunked as a product of Photoshop wizardry, but all the skepticism in the world couldn't dent the popularity of this timely sick joke and its many parodies.
3. Warning: Halloween Terror Attacks on Shopping Malls
If Phase One of September 11 folklore was largely about explaining and coping with the tragedy, Phase Two was about fear: What would happen next? Authorities warned of further attacks but could provide no specifics, creating an information vacuum soon to be filled by rumors. Among the earliest and most widespread was the claim that someone's boyfriend of Arab descent had mysteriously disappeared before the terror attacks, leaving behind a letter with this chilling warning: "Don't fly on airplanes on September 11 and don't go to any shopping malls on Halloween." The FBI said the warning lacked credibility, but it squelched the Halloween plans of many families and businesses across the U.S. just the same.
4. The Klingerman Virus
This 2000-vintage email hoax alleging that fatal viruses or other "deadly substances" are being sent to random households via packages in the mail seemed laughable before September 11; not so afterward, when real cases of anthrax were found to be caused by spores sent in anonymous letters to government offices. Though still a hoax, the recycled "Klingerman Virus" warnings both reflected and compounded public fears surrounding terrorism and the safety of the mail, making it one of the most virulent rumors of 2001.
5. Snowball, the Giant Mutant Cat of Ontario
Strange that a hoax should be remembered fondly, but the photostory of Roger Dedagne and his 87-pound housecat, the progeny of kittens retrieved from an abandoned nuclear facility, hearkens back to a more innocent time — only a few months ago. This one was just for laughs — no dire warnings, no doom and gloom, just a sweet, preposterous tale of a man and his beloved mutant pet.
6. George Turklebaum, R.I.P.
The press committed its share of boo-boos in 2001, one of the earliest and most amusing being the repetition, sans fact-checking, of a tabloid item concerning one George Turklebaum, a New York City proofreader supposedly discovered slumped at his desk by fellow employees five days after he had passed away from a heart attack. "George was always the first guy in each morning and the last to leave at night, so no one found it unusual that he was in the same position all that time and didn't say anything," his boss allegedly told reporters. The truth was that Mr. Turklebaum never existed in the first place.
7. Britney Spears Dies in Car Crash
If you believe what you read on the Internet, pop star Britney Spears died twice in 2001 — first in mid-June, when two radio DJs started a rumor (which then took off by email) that Spears and her beau, Justin Timberlake, had been in a fatal car crash, then again in October, when a hacker posted the same story on a Web page disguised to look like CNN. The DJs who started the whole thing were ultimately sacked. The hacker claimed he was only "conducting research."
8. Premature Rapture
This irreverent tale of a woman who mistakes a bearded guy pulling up next to her in a pick-up for the Second Coming of Jesus wasn't supposed to fool anyone, but when it began circulating by email it caught a few people with their B.S. detectors down in early 2001. Its author, who is still scratching his head over the sudden popularity of his satire, never expected to reach such a wide — or gullible — audience.
9. Snake Swallows Man!
This set of photos purporting to show a human male being swallowed whole by a huge snake was already well-traveled at the dawn of 2001, but new texts kept popping up to "explain" what was happening in the pictures and where, hence the phenomenal circulation of this dubious presentation during the first half of the year. Was it real, or staged? Have a look and the photos and the stories and decide for yourself.
10. The Piano Teacher
Another terrorism story, but this one didn't take place in 2001. It's the inspirational tale (or "glurge," as this genre is becoming known in Internet parlance) of a talentless piano student who overcame all the odds — and logical inconsistencies — to become an overnight prodigy in order that his deaf mother, now dead, might finally hear him play "in heaven." Just in case there was still a dry eye after that, it turned out that Robby the child prodigy grew up to serve his country in Operation Desert Storm and survived, only to be killed several years later in the terrorist bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahomah City, "where he was reportedly... playing the piano."
Dishonorable Mentions:
1. Bonsai Kitten
Probably the most controversial Website of 2001, the repugnant BonsaiKitten.com spawned protests, petitions and even an FBI investigation. Why all the fuss? The site, "Dedicated to preserving the long lost art of body modification in housepets," appears to advocate confining kittens in small glass jars to change the shape of their bodies as they grow.
2. ManBeef.com
A slick commercial Website "catering to the sophisticated human meat consumer." Along with recipes and member services for modern-day cannibals, the site purports to offer easy online ordering and discreet home delivery of the choicest cuts of human meat. You may, however, have better luck purchasing the ManBeef.com logo apparel, given that the FDA has yet to approve the sale of human flesh for food.