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snopes.com: Update #391

Hello again from snopes, where we shed light on the wild tales you've heard! This e-mail gives information about new articles recently added to the snopes.com web site and provides pointers to older pieces about rumors and hoaxes still wandering into everyone's inboxes. Our last update mailing was 22 November 2008.

If after this update you are left wondering about something newly arrived in your inbox, our search engine stands ready to assist you. Bookmark that URL — it's a keeper!

An RSS feed for our What's New page is available at the following URL:
http://www.snopes.com/info/whatsnew.xml

And now to the legends, the mayhem, and the misinformation!
 

New Articles

  • Thief uses credit card info gained during the delivery of flowers and wine to empty a victim's bank account.

  • During this week of thankfulness, let's not forget our troops overseas — especially since Xerox has made it easy to send them greetings.

  • Missing kid hoax: E-mailed appeal seeks help finding a four-year-old boy named Jeremiah missing from his Nashville-area home.

  • Return of an article that examines various automobile manufacturers' contributions to September 11-related relief efforts.

  • Rumor claims television journalist Geraldo Rivera was born Jerry Rivers but changed his name to appeal to Latino viewers.

  • Don't forget to visit our Daily Snopes page for a collection of odd news stories from around the world!

Worth a Second Look

  • Old urban legend: Dinner party enlivened by youngster who embarrassingly confuses sanitary pads with table napkins.

Still Haunting the Inbox

  • Of store closings and the potential impact on gift cards: Updated list of large retail chains that plan to close outlets by the end of 2008.

  • On sending Christmas cards to those serving in the U.S. Armed Forces:

  • Computer virus warnings: Postcard (or Greeting Card), UPS/FedEx delivery failure, and Mail Server Report.

  • Items about President-Elect Barack Obama

  • Petition protests proposed ban on religious broadcasting.

  • E-mail lauds Sears for paying the difference in salaries and maintaining benefits for their called-up military reservist employees.

  • Essay attributed to comedian David Letterman (or Jay Leno) urges Americans to focus on the positive.

  • About the U.S. postage stamp commemorating Islamic holidays.

  • Criminals incapacitate potential victims with business cards soaked in burundanga?

  • E-warning cautions that cell phone numbers are being sold to telemarketers.

  • Drug products containing PPA (phenylpropanolamine) were pulled from the market due to FDA concerns over a possible connection to strokes.

  • Various items about the U.S. Social Security system.

  • Were new U.S. dollar coins designed to omit the motto "In God We Trust"?

  • E-mail describes woman who evades a rapist posing as a policeman by calling #77 (or *677) on her cell phone.

  • Advisory that the first three digits of a bar code indicate a product's country of origin.

  • Appeals to find missing children: Ashley Flores, Reachelle Marie Smith, and Evan Trembley.

  • E-mail seeks to collect list of first names for a student's science fair project.

  • Amy Bruce, a terminally ill young girl, writes "Slow Dance" poem.

  • E-mail lists large retail chains that plan to close stores by the end of 2008.

  • E-mail attributes a "Prayer for Our Nation" to the Rev. Billy Graham.

  • Warning claims that baby carrots are made from deformed full-sized carrots which have been permeated with chlorine.

Fraud Afoot
  • Seems like everyone has become the recipient of mysterious e-mails promising untold wealth if only one helps a wealthy foreigner quietly move millions of dollars out of his country. The venerable 419 Scam has discovered the goldmine that is the Internet. Beware: There's still no such thing as "something for nothing," and the contents of your bank account will end up with these wily foreigners if you fall in with this.

  • Likewise, look out for mailings announcing you've won a foreign lottery you don't recall entering or claiming that because you share the surname of a wealthy person who died without leaving a will you're in line for a windfall inheritance.

  • And be especially wary if, while trying to sell or rent anything online (car, boat, horse, motorcycle, painting, apartment, you name it) you're approached by a prospective buyer/renter who wants to pay with a cashier check made out for an amount in excess of the agreed-upon price and who asks the balance be sent to a third party.

  • Aspiring work-at-homers promised big bucks for acting as intermediaries for international transactions wherein they cash checks for other parties or reship goods to them have been defrauded by con artists. Don't you be next.

  • If someone calls to announce you've failed to appear for jury duty and will be arrested, do not give the caller your personal and financial information in an effort to prove he's sending the gendarmes after the wrong guy. You're being tricked into giving up this information to an identity thief.

Admin Stuff
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