My kids come home all the time with stories that they hear at school. My friends and relatives forward me “concerning” messages. I even see questionable posts in my forum. But it’s not very often that I fall for the Urban Legends. Want to know my secret? Snopes.com. I am an AVID reader at Snopes! Every time I hear anything that sounds the least bit suspicious, I head right to Snopes.
For example, I saw on a professional forum the other day a story posted about a “friend of a friend” (as they always are) who was pulled over by someone posing as a police officer and did not know the special “code” that she should call to get the state police from her cell phone. The story not only criticized cell phone companies for “hiding” this important information from us but also said to pass this number along to every female you know. The problem? The story was a hoax and the number wasn’t even right. Imagine telling your teenage daughters to use the number and then in the case of a real emergency you find out that it was an urban legend and she should have just dialed 911?
Snopes.com is the best online authority for urban legends. You can search by keyword or subject matter or just even see what has been added most recently. They research whether the stories are fact, fiction, undetermined, or all of the above. So if you are wondering whether Sears was really advertising grills to cook babies (true) or if you visit the Cash for Clunkers website your computer becomes government property (false), you should check out Snopes.
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