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By Stig Bakke
#135
Do you really believe everything you see on the net? Of course not, but how do you tell what's real and what isn't? Wouldn't it be great if you could just download a hoax-finder, click an icon, and get a result such as: Hoax Probability: 92%? This could be achieved by cross-referencing the site name with various sites that report or comment on such things, or just by searching for the site name together with words like hoax, fake or phony in various search engines.

Reward: Free hoax-finders for everyone who was gullible enough to sign the anti-bonsai-kitten petition!
By will
#386
theres no way to actually tell a hoax or not. all you would do is automate the google search's related topics, then organize them and take a sort-of poll on them by counting the sites for/against. plus, how would the software know if it IS true or not form toehr sites. one hella smart computer.
By Stig Bakke's brother Stig
#387
I don't think Stig expects the software to "know" anything or make any sort of judgment, or even provide a completely accurate analysis. I believe the point is that you can use data-mining to give you a statistical analysis of the probability that what you're looking at is in fact a hoax. Sounds decent to me.
By zyx Rationalist
#388
yes I am zyx, the most powerful think tank humanity will ever experience, I give this concept of Electric Cylinder to the world for free. So thank me at zyxRationalist@yahoo.com
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By Michael D. Grissom
#2379
I think Stig got it right the first time.

I know of one huge site that does nothing but keep current a list of hoaxes and scammers. They even research the data to find all the scams that involve the same people and explain details of how the scam works. Users can add their comments and experiences with being involved with any of the scams.

Anytime you open a suspect email, it would be a simple matter for your "ScamCheck" button to initiate a comparison between the text in the email and the data on the scam monitoring web site. Collaboration between your new ScamCheck software developer and the monitoring web site would catch most of them. Scam identifying text would be highlighted for you to verify.

This would be of great value to inexperienced surfers who haven't yet learned how to spot the scams. My mom was forever clicking on those ***FREE*** items she was always winning, and never thought twice about the fact that they were only worth $2 to $3 dollars and all she had to do was send them the $6 shipping and handling.

I really REALLY like this one Stig!
By egilwh
#2861
I've recently installed Spamfighter to deal with spam, this is a network/community based approach to the problem. http://www.spamfighter.com

I see Stig's idea as an obvious add-on for this engine!

Have a look!

br,
Egil
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