Urban Whispers

At work today I came across an interesting email titled: "Message to Employees - a tale that is a bit worrying if it's true.... Stay Safe"

The text read as follows:

Warning - We have received a warning from the London Ambulance Service of activities in their area. Whilst the below behaviour is not common place in our area I have spoken with Greater Manchester Police and their risk assessment of the action is to circulate it as a potential'

The London Ambulance service have units closely associated with the Police based in South London who are basically Fighting Gang Crimes. The 'street gangs' in London (particularly South London at present, but it is sure to spread) have initiation tasks which new gang members have to carry out to be admitted to the 'gang'. The latest craze is to drive around, deliberately with no lights on their cars. The first person who 'flashes' them, points at them or sounds their horn at them, has to be followed by that new gang member in their car, who then has to fire a shot into that vehicle with no regard as to who is inside.

Our official instruction is that if we see a vehicle with no lights on, we are NOT to 'flash' it etc. and the advice to friends and family is that you should ignore any vehicles you see without lights. I would ask that you pass this info on to all your family, friends and colleagues and who knows, it may save a life.

A quick Google search of a few of the terms in this email revealed that it is an Urban Legend. Notice also that the News Shopper story was published in May 2004 and that the legend first came to light in 1993.

The first question to come to mind is why make up such stories? A story which causes surplus email traffic, incites fear in the reader, wastes the time and resources of law enforcement authorities and in this case could be the in-direct cause of a motor vehicle accident.

Urban legends however are far from modern as their name may suggest. These stories can be compared to modern day examples of Chinese whispers, which quite literally in the majority of examples have no more than a whisper of truth to them. Since the Internet revolutionised the world these Urban Legends have been able to spread like virus' around the world. Their spread being facilitated by email, word of mouth, SMS and in some cases even news publications and school syllabus', examples:

• Sneeze with your eyes open and they'll pop out.
• The Coriolis effect in bath tubs.
• Microwaves cooking food from the inside out.

One of the recent myths that made its way into the press was the Premium Rate Phone scam. It was reported in the news by several organisations including Saga that pressing 9 upon receiving a phone call saying "You've won a holiday." will put you through to a £20 per minute premium rate line. ICSTIS in fact confirmed that this was not the case and in order to be charged a premium rate one would need to call a premium rate number. Even then the maximum charge is only £1.50 per minute.

HowStuffWorks, states that Urban Legends are often cautionary tales; some morbid; some with morals and others that are just humorous. The origin of Urban Legends is often un-known and going back to the Chinese Whispers analogy they are open wholly to interpretation and therefore exaggeration. While their source is often a true story the end result is likely to bare little or no similarity to the original.

In conclusion Urban Legends such as the "Car Lights" have that cautionary element; but they also include a scare tactic. It could be argued that distribution of such stories is both unethical and potentially dangerous. Any such story should be backed up by a link to a recognised and respected publication and verifiable to from other sources. But sometimes; as demonstrated by the Premium Rate scam example, even this can sometimes be misleading.

My personal recommendation is if such an email arrives in your Inbox - treat it like spam and delete it. A Google search of a few of the phrases will often tell you whether of not it is an Urban Legend.

Sources: HowStuffWorks, News Shopper, New Scientist, Hoax Busters