Oh, what a tangled Web

Somebody named Lawrence started his piece of the chain a few weeks ago. He saw the message, or got it via e-mail, and forwarded it to at least seven friends, urging them to do the same. "If you don't forward anything else, forward this!" he wrote, using exclamation points and marking it "high importance."

By the next morning, it reached more than two dozen recipients. One was Judy, who forwarded it with the question, "What is this country coming to?" Another was Jay, who wrote, "I hope this is not true."

Hoping isn't checking. But one recipient did check the e-mail, which was headed "Eisenhower in Dachau" and claimed that the University of Kentucky had removed all mention of the Holocaust from its courses out of fear of offending Muslims.

It took him only a few seconds of searching to find the story was completely false. It was, in fact, derived from a false rumor about schools in the United Kingdom, or "UK," which someone, somewhere, took to mean University of Kentucky.

Rumors of that sort once circulated primarily by word of mouth. Now they move at the speed of the Internet in viral e-mail. Instantly and endlessly forwarded with the click of a mouse, they spread word of blood-boiling scandals, eye-misting or flag-waving inspiration, dangers lurking at gas pumps, malls and perfume counters, and of tricks and boycotts sure to lower the price of gas. They carry screeds wrongly attributed to George Carlin, Jay Leno, Andy Rooney or Kurt Vonnegut Jr. and promises of big money for forwarding e-mail.

They can be harmless, but often they're a nuisance -- the University of Kentucky had to issue a statement denying the UK rumor following a flood of complaints about the widely circulated story. Frequently, especially in an election year, they're malicious.

Anyone can be fooled

"Sometimes from people you wouldn't think would be susceptible," said Robert Thompson, professor of media and popular culture at Syracuse University. "I'll get them from colleagues in media-oriented fields you'd think would be completely savvy."

Michael Scharf, director of the International Law Center at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law, said he gets forwarded e-mail from friends who'll think something "makes some sense to them personally," but neglect their standard academic fact-checking.

"I get them from some of my closest friends, and I'll still check them," said Jill Miller Zimon, a Cleveland writer and editor who blogs at WritesLikeSheTalks.com.

The Cleveland Public Library makes warnings about online hoaxes and scams a regular part of the training in computers and the Internet it conducts through its computer-learning programs.

"When we have patrons asking about the truthfulness of the claims in e-mail, we usually have to reply that if it seems too good to be true, it probably is," said John Skrtic, manager of the social sciences department. "Sometimes, however, we miss out on this opportunity, because people have too much faith in their ability to spot a hoax in e-mail."

Biases can affect believability

Viral e-mails raise larger concerns when they involve political issues and candidates, Thompson said, noting they're sometimes believed by the same people who scoff skeptically at "mainstream media" stories because of perceived bias or agendas.

"If that's the information they're making political decisions on, that doesn't say much," he said. "It makes me wonder if the democratic experiment is going to be able to truly maintain itself. The great American experiment could be the victim of its noblest goals. It could drown in democracy.