Reading Response #5

Reading Response #5

“Web Hoaxes, Counterfeit Sites, and Other Spurious Information on the Internet”
By: Paul S. Piper


This article addresses the fake, hoax, and spoof websites on the internet. The internet is filled with websites like these that surfers may or may know about. One example of a hoax website that it gives is about Martin Luther King. The website is www.martinlutherking.org, which appears to be a legitimate website at first, especially with the .org ending. Once you locate the site and start reading the information, you will realize that the information on the site is either false or degrading to MLK. The creator of the site is actually a white supremacy group, Stormfront. An example that Piper gives as a spoof is www.whitehouse.com. At first glance, one would believe this site was actually about The White House, but when visiting the site you will soon learn that this is a pornographic website.
In my opinion some of these websites really bother me. The ones that bother me the most are the ones that show up after a tragedy. After 9/11 people started receiving emails asking for donations for the victims and their families. These emails were sent out immediately following the terrorist attack. Any person would fall for this especially after something as tragic as 9/11. The fact is that these donations were not going to any sort of relief fund, there were going into some hacker’s pocket. In my opinion, sites and emails like these are something that should be dealt with on a legal level with consequences. Piper gives a clue on how to avoid being sucked into a scheme. One thing he says is that a donation relief program will never send out emails in mass quantities and to go directly to the site that you want to donate to, not through email.