ERIC SPELLMANN

E-mail urban legends are rampant

Tell me if you've heard this one:

"Police are warning motorists to be aware of a potentially deadly new gang initiation rite. Prospective gang members drive around at night with their headlights turned off, wait for the first friendly motorist to flash a high-beam signal as a warning, and then follow and kill the helpful driver. If you see a car with its headlights turned off, do NOT flash your high-beams at them."

If you've been on the Internet very long, chances are, you've received an e-mail with "this warning." Welcome to the wide world of Urban Legends! This story is a prank. No police department in the United States has reported any incidents of this type ever occurring. In fact, law enforcement officials are very frustrated at the extent this story has spread. They report fielding thousands of calls from nervous drivers every month.

How did this story get started? No-one knows. But the ease and speed of e-mail has given this prank nationwide attention.

Although some urban legends had their creation based on some sort of factual event, most are completely fabricated by tricksters. The more "truthful" they sound, the farther they will travel before they fade away.

Take, for instance, the "stolen kidney" legend. It goes something like this:

"A guy meets a girl, they go to her room ... and he passes out. He wakes up hours later in a bathtub full of ice, a metal pan underneath him, and a phone handy, with a note to call 911 and tell them he's had a kidney removed."

The legend goes on to say that "black market organ demand is creating this new type of crime. Beware of going home with someone you don't know."

If I didn't know better, I'd think this legend was started by worried parents, trying to scare their teenagers into abstinence.

Organ theft is a very popular urban legend because it sounds like it COULD be true. The fear of just such an incident usually incites the e-mail reader to forward it to their closest thousand friends. And so the legend goes on ...

Urban legends have always been around. Only now, however, have they exploded into major myths. In large part, the internet is to blame. New computer users often have the misconception that "if their computer says something, it must be true!" We tend to believe our computer over a story overheard at the company water cooler.

Another type of urban legend, and perhaps the most popular, is the "false e-mail virus". These days, the JDBGMGR.EXE hoax is the most popular in this category. Basically, it comes as a forwarded message from a friend, but originally sent by a “Scott Fitzgerald”. He claims that his system is infected with a nasty virus that (a) cannot be detected by any antivirus software and (b) will destroy your system within 14 days. As proof, he has you search your system for the virus file, named JDBGMGR.EXE.

However, any Windows user that searches for this file WILL FIND IT on their system. That’s because the JDBGMGR.EXE file is a legitimate Windows file (specifically the Java Debugger Manager). Despite the fact that the icon for this file is a stupid looking teddybear, the file IS valid and should not be deleted. A similar virus hoax message went out a year or two ago about the dreaded “SULFBNK.EXE” file. Once again, it is a legitimate file and should not be deleted.

I usually get "warned" by some of my customers about these stories and viruses at least twice a week. So, before you forward a warning to your closest 500 friends, please check it out at one of the following websites first:

http://www.urbanlegends.com
http://www.kumite.com/myths
http://www.vmyths.com
http://www.snopes.com

Please, don't believe everything you receive via e-mail …

I’ll see you in Cyberspace!

Eric Spellmann, Owner
Spellmann & Associates

http://www.EricSpellmann.com

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