Take Time to Read

Information for evaluating the credibility of a site can often be found right out in the open.

The best thing to do is take a moment and scan a page before acting on it.  For example, here's another scam that showed up in my inbox today:

 Get More Out of Skype -  VoIP for free

If you are already a Skype user you know that most of its services are free to begin with. So what does this site offer that is any different than free Skype?

Not much. Read the disclaimer at the bottom of the page:

Disclaimer: This website has no affiliation whatsoever with the owner of this software program and does not re-sell or license software. All software is freeware and/or shareware with the understanding that the user may need or want to pay for it later. Membership is for unlimited access to our site's resources. We provide an organized website with links to third party freeware and shareware software, technical support, tutorials and step by step guides.

You can see that what you get for your money is basically "an organized website with links to ... freeware and shareware." Not much of a service, really. I wrote about this in a previous posting, but wanted to emphasize that clues on the page raise red flags, if you take time to read.

Searching too quickly--or acting too quickly--leads to a lot of waste. It's not a waste of time to read before believing.

Whale Tale

My colleague Dennis O'Connor is spending a few days in Baja. He reports seeing whales every day.

I thought I'd browse around to see what mischief online I could find related to whales. It didn't take long to find www.icrwhales.net.

This is a fairly curious site which proclaims itself to be a parody. I haven't seen it listed on any of the standard hoax indices. The site, which calls itself the Institute of Delicious Whale Research (IDWR), contains stories and examples that suggest a humorous orientation. That might make a good challenge for older students: identify how the language of the site discloses its purpose.  It's pretty much the same skill set as trying to detect bias.

Perhaps more challenging to find is the AUTHOR and PUBLISHER. Let's see if anyone can come up with that information and post it here, along with a brief description how you found it.  Knowing more about the author(s) may help answer this question: can you detect whether the author is for or against whale hunting?

Another challenge: what site is icrwhales.net parodizing?


You may want to add this example to your list of hoax/parody sites.