I’ve a couple of cousins who seem to get a lot of hoax e-mails. Something like Snopes is pretty good for positively identifying them but a simpler way could be an e-mail where you forward suspected hoaxes to. This could automatically check the contents of the mail and reply with a verdict, perhaps with a link to the whole story.
I just suggested it to Snopes.
Tags: lazyweb
This is an excellent idea. As an IT Consultant, the amount of e-mails I get from customers every week asking “Is this for real?” about the latest hoax e-mail is staggering. An automated service to confirm it’s a hoax would be good. Then again, copying and pasting the first few words of any hoax e-mail into Google can verify it’s status – and most people don’t do that!