Have you ever gotten an email that either excited or disturbed you and wanted to share it with others? Everyone has. But wait a moment and think of the old saying ‘If something is too good to be true, it probably is.’ Well, that applies to this situation as well, only here we would substitute ‘too unbelievable to be true’. Sure, some extraordinary and disturbing things we read about or see on the internet are true…but some are not. You don’t want to embarrass yourself or upset a friend by sending them an email that later is found to be a hoax, do you? Of course not. In cases when you are not sure about the source of the information being an expert or authority, etc. (not including well-meaning friends, unfortunately), your should CHECK YOUR SOURCES. Newspapers have to do this. TV News networks are supposed to do this (and usually do). But the internet has no such controls. People can write whatever they want to write regardless of whether it is true or false. There is little accountability. But you, yes YOU can be a soldier on the front battling this tidal wave of misinformation by following two simple rules:
1. When you receive and email that either excites your emotions or disturbs you, stop and ask yourself the question, ‘Is this true, or not?’ If you don’t know the answer, then you can usually find out by copying a phrase of a few words from the email that best summarizes it’s subject, then pasting it into your favorite search engine eg. www.google.com. If the email is a HOAX, then the search results will probably turn up a hit at either www.snopes.com, www.hoax-slayer.com. If there is a hit, click the link and read what they have to say about it. It may be true, but often it is not. They do the research to check these things so you don’t have to – how nice! Now that you have your answer to ‘Is this true or not?’ you are armed with the knowledge that allows you to take the next step…
2. If the above mentioned web sites say that the email is not true, please, please, please do NOT forward the email to everyone you know 
I’m done.
Thanks.
