You’ll typically encounter a hoax on social networks or in chain emails. Typical signs that should trigger the alarms in your head are ones like these:
- “Please share…” – effort to spread the news to as many people as possible.
- “… otherwise something will happen!!!” – effort to create pressure.
- “… otherwise something will happen to the kittens, puppies, children…!!!” – effort to elicit fear/sympathy.
- “… everyone has to know this!!!” – effort to create sensation or spread of advice, which is, however, unsuitable.
The goal of a hoax is to make fun of people, but it’s also to incite fear, manipulate opinions, or spread fake advice. If something seems suspicious to you on Facebook, Instagram or email, you can go to hoax.cz, where you’ll find a list of currently revealed hoaxes. Do you remember the first one, which people shared on Facebook, the second one with the puppies, or the third one with the medicine for bee stings?
If you know what’s good for you, protect your personal data!!!
If you post a similar hoax to your social network, it means a few things. Firstly, you’re not protecting your personal data at all, because you’ve believed nonsense and haven’t studied the proper procedures. Unknowledgeable users are excellent prey for fraudsters. Secondly, you’ve shown that you don’t know how to truly protect your personal data and you might become an even better target.
This version of the hoax about copyright and Facebook is from 2012, but it is still being spread today. In this article you can find a version from 2020 and the reason not to believe the text. Source: KISK.
If you’ve got a heart, save the puppies!!!
How does an innocent advertisement turn into a coercive chain email? Source: Hoax.cz.
Hi,
A friend of mine has new puppies, and as there are a lot of them, we’re looking for some good people. Help us save the 3-week old Retriever and Labrador puppies before they’re put down – if you’ve got a heart, send this to as many people as possible, and maybe we can find someone with a good heart who’ll welcome in a new pet. White – 3x female pups. Black – 2x male pups, 2x female.
Contact: Peter Porubský
You must want to help, mainly mothers and children! (taken from Internetem bezpečně)
Don’t believe recommendations from a friend of a friend of someone on Facebook that you don’t know in person, especially when it’s about health. This hoax is pointed out by Internetem bezpečně. Source: KISK.
The basic procedure to protect yourself from a hoax:
- Recognizing a basic hoax from formulations like “Share…” or “Forward…”
- Checking them at snopes.com
- Potentially reporting a newly discovered hoax also at snopes.com