Hoax Slayer
Type of site
Debunking resource, reference pages
Available inEnglish
OwnerBrett Christensen
Revenue$50,000/year (advertising)[1]
URLwww.hoax-slayer.net
LaunchedAugust 2003
Current statusOffline, shut down by owner

Hoax Slayer (stylized as Hoax-Slayer) was a fact-checking website[2][3] established in 2003 by Brett Christensen, dedicated to critically analyzing the veracity of urban legends. While it was best known for debunking false stories and internet scams, it also hosted a page listing strange but true stories.[4][5]

History

Hoax Slayer originated as a Yahoo! group before the website was established.[6]

Stories it has debunked include fake videos claiming to depict Malaysia Airlines Flight 370,[7] myths that the 2013 supermoon appeared bigger than it really did,[8] and a "Simon Ashton" hoax claiming that emails from Simon Ashton should not be opened because doing so would lead to your computer being hacked.[9]

In 2014, the site was reworked, changing the style and color scheme for main pages and new reports, while old reports retained the previous style. Hoax Slayer was closed down on 31 May 2021.[10]

Brett Christensen

Brett M. Christensen, a resident of Bundaberg, Australia, worked as a caravan park cleaner before he founded Hoax-Slayer.com in August 2003. He was inspired to do so after being convinced that the "Budweiser Frogs virus" really existed, only to discover later that it did not.[11][12] He wrote most of the site's articles, but two of his three sons, according to him, "help maintain the website and do invaluable work behind the scenes."[13] In addition to debunking hoaxes, Christensen has noted that many of them are "loosely derived" from real events. "For example, in Australia in 1999 a woman claimed to have been assaulted by criminals who used a chemical disguised as perfume to disable her. Warnings about that incident, which may not have been true to begin with, soon spread to the internet and have circulated ever since," he told the Guardian.[14]

References

  1. ^ Elliott, Tim (26 November 2009). "Aussie hoax slayer smashes web scams". Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 18 May 2014.
  2. ^ Vosoughi, Soroush; Roy, Deb; Aral, Sinan (9 March 2018). Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "The spread of true and false news online". Science. 359 (6380): 1146–1151. doi:10.1126/science.aap9559.
  3. ^ Smith, Andrew (9 January 2015). Daley, Beth (ed.). "The persistent internet hoax endures, now on Facebook". The Conversation. The Open University. Retrieved 1 November 2021.
  4. ^ Wenzel, Murray (11 December 2009). "Brett Christensen a 'Hoax Slayer'". NewsMail. Retrieved 18 May 2014.
  5. ^ "Travel brands hijacked to dupe customers". Travel Weekly. 25 January 2019. Retrieved 14 December 2020.
  6. ^ Malone, Tim (6 August 2010). "Top 10 sites to debunk Internet hoaxes". TechRepublic. Retrieved 18 May 2014.
  7. ^ Ngak, Chenda (17 March 2014). "Malaysia Airlines MH370 found in the Bermuda Triangle? Not a chance". CBS News. Retrieved 18 May 2014.
  8. ^ Neuman, Scott (21 June 2013). "Supermoon To Dominate Weekend Sky". NPR. Retrieved 18 May 2014.
  9. ^ Arthur, Charles (17 March 2010). "Is the virus warning about a hacker called Simon Ashton real?". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 May 2014.
  10. ^ Brett M. Christensen (22 May 2021). "Hoax-Slayer is Closing Down". Hoax Slayer. Retrieved 22 May 2021.
  11. ^ Elliott, Tim (26 November 2009). "Hoax slayer puts the bite on vampires of the cyber world". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 18 May 2014.
  12. ^ "No scam too tricky for Bundaberg's Hoax Slayer". The Dalby Herald. 23 June 2016. Retrieved 14 December 2020.
  13. ^ About Hoax Slayer
  14. ^ Groskop, Viv (10 June 2008). "Beware of the hoax". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 May 2014.
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