If you receive an email warning you of a virus, a scam, or telling some incredible story or urban myth, please always search on Google to see if these are a hoax before forwarding them.

Reputable email debunking sites include:

• Hoax-Slayer
• Snopes

If you get an email warning of a virus, check at:

• McAfee virus info
• Virus Hoaxes
• Symantec security response
• Symantec A to Z listing of threats

These are some of the hoax emails that I have received recently, all false (some dangerously so), all forwarded by well-meaning people. Please do a search to check if it's true before forwarding these things.

Completely false:

• "Palestinian child brides" - remember even if there are photos included, there could be an innocent explanation
• "Starbucks refuse free coffee to soldiers"

True once, but five years out of date:
These were true but out of date, as the scams were shut down in 2005:

• Belize postal scam
• PDS phone scam

Mixture of true and false information:
This one sounds plausible but is a mixture of true and false information:

• Plastic water bottles cause cancer
• Plastic water bottles contain toxins

True, but crucial information omitted:
This one was true, but the email missed out some really important steps in the process and both sexes suffer from atypical heart attacks, so both men and women should be alert:

• Heart attack experience in women

Web addresses (URLs) can be very long, and if you are pasting them into an email, Twitter, or printing them in your newsletter, it's better to use a URL shortener. This creates a much shorter version of the web address, which redirects to the long version. This saves space in Twitter, prevents the problem of URLs breaking when they are wrapped round to the next line in emails, and saves your newsletter readers from typing out the long version.