In a fast-paced, cyberspace world, Internet hoaxes have become the new urban legends for college students to pass along.
Although originally started in 2000, Bonsai Kitten (www.bonsaikitten.com), a Web site that promotes selling kittens in jars, is still one of the most prominent Internet hoaxes, according to a report released yesterday by Sophos, an anti-spam and anti-virus software company.
A chain e-mail asking for petition signatures against the Web site continues to circulate, causing the same effect as any other chain letter, said Sophos security analyst Dominic Wild.
(It) seems to have created quite a stir
he said.
Sophos concentrates on corporate environments -such as businesses and universities. Wild said many of the e-mails probably are created and passed on by college students.
Ohio University junior Amanda Reass received a message on TheFacebook.com about the kittens and checked out the Web site to see if it was true. At first, she believed it -because crazy people are out there she said. But the phony-looking pictures on the Web site changed her mind.
The pictures were created using Photoshop, Wild said. There are no pictures on the Web site of the completed customized kittens or information about where to send checks. But there are a great deal of fake postings by people praising the site.
Who would want a kitten in a box? Reass said.
The Bonsai Kitten site, dedicated to preserving the long-lost art of body modification in house pets states that by putting kittens in jars, their flexible bones will form them into rectangular shapes so that it might pursue its adventurous life with the crisp angles it deserves. The site's underlying sardonic humor has amused many college students, and this is one of the reasons why Reass said she and others passed the e-mail along.
Reass also said she signed the petition, because it seemed cruel to joke about it.
I was on the floor laughing and crying when I first saw it
said Eric Gorscak, a freshman biology major who started a group on TheFacebook.com called Bonsai Kitten Fun! as a joke. I knew it was horrible
but I just couldn't stop laughing.
Bonsai Kitten began in 2000 by students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology posing as a fictional Japanese doctor. Since it was barred from the MIT server, it has moved to many different servers and is now part of www.rotten.com, a Web site known for its disturbing photos.
The FBI in Boston investigated the case in 2001 and determined it to be a hoax, said Gail Marcinkiewicz, an FBI spokeswoman.
Another e-mail circulating on campus involves a phony date-rape drug called progesterex
which is claimed to sterilize women.
This type of e-mail has been popping up in different forms for years, said Char Kopchick, OU director of health education and wellness.
She said she used to get questioned about the e-mails often during her programs, but lately there has not been a great deal of concern.
Reass received the date-rape e-mail and assumed it was real.
But it's always better to know than to not know
she said.
Although hoax e-mails come and go, they resurface to new generations, often in slightly modified forms, Kopchick said.
Sean O'Malley, information technology communications manager of Communication Network Services, hears concerns from students about phishing expedition e-mails, or hoax e-mails that appear to be official e-mails from financial institutions. Con artists who design the e-mails request the recipient to go to an illegitimate Web site or to call a fake phone number to obtain account information.
One OU student told the OU Police Department Jan. 10 that her entire bank account, totalling $280, was emptied after she entered personal account information on an e-mail link she thought her bank sent her, according to a Jan. 11 article in The Post.
Another common hoax letter is the Nigerian hoax
which offers proceeds of a deceased man's funds in return for assistance in obtaining the money. The e-mail recipient is requested to wire money to assist the scammer in coming into the United States. The scammer then keeps the money.
In OAK accounts, this e-mail and most fabricated e-mails are filtered into the spam folder.
Anti-virus companies, such as Sophos and McAfee are also becoming more sensitive to Internet scams, often providing resources about the subject. But any computer-savvy person can easily create a hoax e-mail, O'Malley said.
Scam e-mails slow down network services as well as waste time, Wild said.
The crooks are getting a little smarter
so you have to be a little more paranoid
O'Malley said.
As a general rule, no information should be given over the Web or the phone if you did not initiate the interaction, he said.
There's a ton of stuff out there that doesn't necessarily cross our desk because people don't bother to ask about it
O'Malley said.
