How to spot an Email Hoax Forward

Would you like it if one of your close friends regularly gives you bad stock market tips? Or how about giving advice that is clearly harmful?
That may be exactly what you are doing to your friends when you forward hoax mails.

It’s one thing when forwarding a funny mail to a few of your friends.
But it’s dangerous to blindly believe a hoax forward you received and send it to all your friends thinking that you are doing them a favour.

You are responsible for what you send to your friends including wrong information – it is not an excuse that you did not know that the information was wrong.

Before forwarding an email, ask yourself these questions:

1. Does the email fail to provide confirmation sources?
Hoaxes do not provide verifiable references to back up their spurious claims. Genuine mails will usually provide a link to reputed news articles, websites or other publications. So even if there is a link, check that it is a reputed site.

2. Does the email ask you to send it to a lot of other people?
Hoax writers want their material to spread as far and as fast as possible, so almost every hoax email will in some way exhort you to send it to other people. Some email hoaxes take a more targeted approach and suggest that you send the email to a specified number of people in order to collect a prize or realize a benefit.

3. Is the language used overly emotive or highly technical?
Email hoax writers have a tendency to use an emotive, "over-the-top" style of writing peppered with words and phrases such as "Urgent", "Danger", "worst ever virus!!", "sign now before it's too late" and so on, often rendered in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS for added emphasis. Paragraphs dripping with pathos speak of dying children; others "shout" with almost rabid excitement about free air travel or mobile phones. As well, some email hoaxes try to add credibility by using highly technical language.
A "yes" answer to one or more of the above questions, should start some alarm bells ringing. These indicators do not offer conclusive evidence that the email is a hoax but they are certainly enough to warrant further investigation before you hit the "Forward" Button.

Next time, think twice before forwarding a mail that may be a hoax. Even if no harm comes to your senders, you may get a reputation for spending misinformation.

Summarised from http://www.hoax-slayer.com.