LIES, DAMNED LIES, AND THE INTERNET

a presentation by Marylaine Block, April 24, 2003

Why It Matters

  • Because bad information has serious consequences: people who believe in health fraud scams may die, people who fall for business scams will lose money, and people who trust bad legal advice can end up in jail.

  • Because people are too trusting of computers and the internet. Note the following:

    1. In a national poll commissioned by Streaming Media, 1232 respndents were asked about what sources they trust the most for news. Of the 550 regular intrnet users in the poll, 76% said they could learn everything they need to know from the net; 51% said the internet had the most accurate information. [Editor and Publisher, May 15, 2000]

    2. In a Pew Internet Survey on education and the internet [http://www.pewinternet.org/reports/toc.asp?Report=39, 71% of online teens say that they used the Internet as the major source for their most recent major school project or report.

    3. In a Pew Internet Survey on health and the internet [http://www.pewinternet.org/reports/toc.asp?Report=26], Fifty-two million American adults, or 55% of those with Internet access, have used the Web to get health or medical information. . . A great many health seekers say the resources they find on the Web have a direct effect on the decisions they make about their health care and on their interactions with doctors. 10% have purchased medicine or vitamins online.

      10% have described a medical condition or problem in order to get advice from an online doctor.

      21% have provided their email address to a health Web site; 17% have provided their name or other personal information. 80% of health seekers say it is important to them that they can get this information anonymously, without having to talk to anyone.

    4. A nationwide survey by the Markle Foundation released in July 2001 found that the leading metaphor in the public's mind for the internet is "a library."



    Varieties of Deception

    Innocent Mistakes

  • Urban legends

  • Virus warnings from the uninformed

  • Data input errors -- typos, misplaced decimals, mistranslations, misspellings, problems of numeracy. See Jerry Lanson, "Online Errors Survive to Byte," Online Journalism Review, http://www.ojr.org/ojr/ethics/1017964185.php and Carl M. Cannon, "The Real Computer Virus," in American Journalism Review, April 2001. Also, CyberSlip-Ups, from CyberJournalist.net http://www.cyberjournalist.net/slipups.htm

  • Parodies (which may be taken seriously by the unwary -- articles in The Onion have been cited in student papers, for instance)

  • Self-Proclaimed experts who aren't all that expert. See "Aska and You May Receive," in Searcher, May, 2000.


    Deliberate Fraud

  • E-Mail scams: Fake donations, free credit offers, home loan offers, credit repair, penis enlargment, become irresistible to women, porn photos, free cell phones, work from home, etc. Beware anything with exclamation points.

  • Stock manipulation and other scams

  • Domain name fraud: Hijacking discontinued domain, domain squatting, domain-misspellings, defamatory content on lookalike (martinlutherking.org, globalwarming.org, a counterfeit of Bloomberg used for stock manipulation)

  • Hacks -- substitution of content on someone else's web site
  • Online auction fraud

  • Identity Theft. See "Internet Users at Risk" in Searcher, January 2001.

  • The biggest lie of all, perpetrated by us, on ourselves: that everything is on the Internet:


    graph of distribution of all recorded human knowledge, by format


    See also the Berkeley "How Much Information Project," at http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/research/projects/how-much-info/charts/charts.html


    Protections for Searchers

    General Fraud and Hoaxes

  • Better Business Bureau Online http://bbbonline.org/

  • Don't Spread that Hoax http://www.nonprofit.net/hoax/default.htm

  • FTC Consumer Protection http://www.ftc.gov/ftc/consumer.htm

  • Give.org http://www.give.org/ -- the BBB Wise Giving Alliance offers advice on telling the real charities from the fraudulent ones.

  • Internet Fraud Complaint Center http://www1.ifccfbi.gov/index.asp. The FBI site. Check out the Fraud Tips and the IFCC Warnings, or file a complaint here.

  • Internet Fraud: How To Avoid Investment Scams http://www.sec.gov/investor/pubs/cyberfraud.htm

  • Internet Fraud Watch, from the National Consumers' Federation http://www.fraud.org/internet/intinfo.htm. The Internet Tips section has info on several kinds of scams on the net.

  • Internet Scambusters: a free e-zine http://www.scambusters.org/. Includes the Scam Check Station, with info on specific kinds of fraud, a Stop Spam section, and archives of previous issues

  • Scamwatch http://www.scamwatch.com/. From InterGov International. You can check out the latest scam reports or the FAQs, or report crimes and scams.

  • Urban Legends Reference Pages http://www.snopes2.com/. Investigates urban legends and determines whether they are true, false, or "of undetermined or ambiguous veracity"

  • the Virtual Chase: Groups That Alert the Public to Internet Fraud, Fanaticism and Bad information http://www.virtualchase.com/quality/alert.html -- For all kinds of fraud, not just health fraud.

  • VMyths.com - Truth about Computer Virus Myths and Hoaxes http://www.vmyths.com/


    Health Fraud

  • CDC Health-Related Hoaxes and Rumors http://www.cdc.gov/hoax_rumors.htm

  • Dietfraud HQ http://www.dietfraud.com/

  • Fraud and Quackery: Internet Resources http://www.pitt.edu/~cbw/fraud.html

  • HON Code of Conduct for Medical and Health Sites http://www.hon.ch/HONcode/Conduct.html?HONConduct719879 -- sites displaying the HON symbol agree to be monitored for compliance with these standards.

  • How To Spot Health Fraud http://www.fda.gov/fdac/features/1999/699_fraud.html -- advice from the FDA

  • MedlinePlus: Health Fraud http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/healthfraud.html

  • Internet Pharmacy and Online Pharmacies Verification http://www.nabp.net/vipps/intro.asp -- check out any internet pharmacy to see if it is approved by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy

  • QuackWatch http://www.quackwatch.com/. An excellent, frequently updated guide to health scams and excessive claims.


    Protect Yourself

  • USE A LIBRARY or ASK A LIBRARIAN.

  • Sez Who? Who wrote it? Who sponsored it?

  • Why are they giving this away for free? Free to the user does not mean free for the people who maintain the page; a website can be quite expensive. What are they hoping to gain from posting the information? Note: some online search engines no longer tell users when top placement has been paid for: AltaVista, MSN, LookSmart, Direct Hit, HotBot are among the ones who have been charged in a lawsuit for this.

  • Check for clues to the origin of the document in the URL. Some URLs are more credible than others.

  • The more inflammatory or impassioned the site, the more exclamation points it has, the greater the need to confirm from other sources

  • Use link searching to find out what kinds of people and organizations are linking to the site

  • Always ask, How do they know that? Ask, Does that makes sense?

  • Be skeptical of your data. Be especially skeptical of the data you want most to believe.

  • Verify in at least two other sources -- one of them in a reputable reference source.

  • Use Google as your general search engine. It doesn't sell placement.

  • See also the advice on the CyberJournalist Cyber Slip-Ups page http://www.cyberjournalist.net/slipups.htm


    Bibliography

  • Arnold, Stephen E. "Internet Users at Risk" in Searcher, January 2001.

  • Burbules, Nicholas C. "Paradoxes of the Web: the Ethical Dimensins of Credibility. Library Trends, Winter, 2001.

  • Cannon, Carl M. "The Real Computer Virus," American Journalism Review, April 2001

  • Detwiler, Susan. "Charlatans, Leeches and Old Wives: Medical Misinformation." Searcher, March, 2001 [http://infotoday.com/searcher/mar01/detwiler.htm

  • Ebbinghouse, Carol. "Medical and Legal Misinformation on the Internet." Searcher, October, 2000.

  • Katz, James E. "Struggle in Cyberspace: Fact and Friction on the World Wide Web." Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Nov. 1998

  • Lanson, Jerry. "Online Errors Survive to Byte," Online Journalism Review, http://www.ojr.org/ojr/ethics/1017964185.php

  • Lasica, J.D. "Search Engines and Editorial Integrity." Online Journalism Review, July 23, 2001 http://www.ojr.org/ojr/technology/1017778969.php

  • Mintz, Anne. "Dangerous Data Ahead." Searcher, May 2000 [http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/may00/mintz.htm

  • Mintz, Anne. "Database Quality and Accuracy: a Selected Bibliography http://www.ibiblio.org/journalism/dbqcbibliog.html

  • Mintz, Anne. Web of Deception: Misinformation on the Internet. Information Today, 2002.

  • O'Leary, Stephen D. "Rumors of Grace and Terror." Online Journalism Review, October 5, 2001 http://www.ojr.org/ojr/ethics/1017782038.php

  • Piper, Paul S. "Better Read That Again: Web Hoaxes and Misinformation. Searcher, Sept. 2000 [http://infotoday.com/searcher/sep00/piper.htm]

  • Tomaiuolo, Nicholas G. "Aska and You May Receive," in Searcher, May, 2000.



    For questions about the presentation, send e-mail to marylaine at netexpress.net