Quantcast

The Top 25 Web Hoaxes and Pranks

These online spoofs and shams have made the rounds on Web sites and through e-mail. Perhaps you even believed one or two of them yourself.

Steve Bass

  • 0 Yes
  • 0 No

Whether they take the form of a comic image of a giant cat or a desperate plea from a sick child, chain e-mail messages and Internet frauds are elements of the online landscape that we've all encountered. No topic is off limits: a medical warning, a promise of free money, or a believably (or shoddily) Photoshopped image. But at the end of the day, they're just elaborate hoaxes or clever pranks--and we've collected 25 of the most infamous ones ever to have graced the Internet or our inboxes.

Though some of these deceptions originated years ago, the originals--and dozens of variants--continue to make the rounds. If you keep a patient vigil over your e-mail, you too may eventually spot a message urging you to FORWARD THIS TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW!!! And if you haven't had enough when you finish reading this article, take a hoax test at the Museum of Hoaxes, and then hop over to Snopes, the premier myth-dispelling site for coverage of zillions of other falsifications.

  • Recommend this story?
  • 0 Yes
    0 No

"The Top 25 Web Hoaxes and Pranks" Comments

With HP wireless printers, you could have printed this from any room in the house. Live wirelessly. Print wirelessly.

Related Consumer Advice Articles

  • CDW Security Center Is your data protected? Visit the CDW Security Center Learn where you may be vulnerable and how to address those risks.
  • Asus Laptop Showcase Ultra-fashionable thin and light notebooks with SmartLogon Face Recognition. Find out more...
  • HP Ink Center Bring improved color and brilliance to your printed material. Visit the Resource Center for more info...

PC World's Marketplace

PC World's Free Whitepapers

Name City
Address 1 State Zip
Address 2 E-mail (optional)