Electricity Hoaxes, Rumors and Scams

With the advent of the Internet, urban legends, hoaxes and rumors have exploded. Remember the kidney heist? Or the headlight gang killer? Once shared among teenagers at late-night slumber parties, these stories live on through email, "news" stories and social media sites that continue to dupe new generations.

Some hoaxes are obviously fiction to the common skeptic, such as the recent "Giant Spiders Released from DNA Laboratory in Missouri." Others may be easier to believe such as scary computer viruses that wipe out your hard drive.

As a result, several anti-hoax websites have popped up that seek to monitor and debunk the continuing flow of Internet hoaxes and rumors. They also monitor rumors that may sound false, but are actually true, such as the recently circulating image of a "happy-face spider."

The electricity industry has its own share of hoaxes, rumors and scams, which may be more believable because some do not seem that outrageous, could be based in truth, and people are less educated about these topics. One common hoax is a widely circulated image of the Northeast blackout of 2003, shown from space. Snopes.com and other sites like it have proven the image to be false.

Following are a few hoaxes, rumors and scams that T&D World has collected that might interest the power industry. See if you have believed any of these on first glance. And tell us if we have left anything out; whether false, true or legend. We may research the rumor and add it to the gallery. (Leave in comments section below).