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So how does an email rumor start?
Who knows? Most of them are impossible to trace back to a single originator. And once they're started, they're almost impossible to stop.
Just ask Tommy Hilfiger. Several years ago, an email rumor was widely circulated that he made racist remarks during an appearance on Oprah! It never happened.
Tommy Hilfiger Rumor

                  I'm sure many of you watched the recent taping of the
                  Oprah Winfrey show where her guest was Tommy Hilfiger.
                  On the show, she asked him if the statements about race
                  he was accused of saying were true.
                  Statements like:"...if I'd known African-Americans,
                  Hispanics, jews and Asians would buy my clothes, I would
                  not have made them so nice. I wish these people would
                  *NOT* buy my clothes, as they are made for upper class
                  white people."
                  His answer to Oprah was a simple "YES". Whereafter, she
                  immediately asked him to leave her show.
                  Let's give him what he asked for. Let's not buy his
                  clothes! let's put him in a financial state where he
                  himself will not be able to afford the ridiculous prices
                  he puts on his clothes.
                  PLEASE SEND THIS MESSAGE TO ANYONE YOU KNOW WHO SPENDS
                  THEIR HARD EARNED MONEY ON CLOTHES MADE BY SOMEONE WHO
                  DOES NOT RESPECT THEM AS A PERSON OR A PEOPLE!
Click here for the reasons why the Tommy Hilfiger rumor isn't true.

Hilfiger tried to combat the rumor by circulating a rebuttal on the Internet. It didn't work. That rumor is still popping up, and people still believe it.

Or take the case of the famous Sunscreen Speech--which you will be certain to hear near graduation. This was not actually a speech, but a column by writer Mary Schmich.

Shortly after her article appeared however, it began to circulate on the Internet as a graduation speech delivered by Kurt Vonnegut at MIT. In fact, Kofi Annan was the speaker that year.
Click here to read Schmich's follow-up article about the rumor.
What happened? Maybe someone liked the article and sent it to a friend or posted on a newsgroup with an innocent comment--like, "Sounds almost like Vonnegut, doesn't it?" The friend sent it to 20 of her closest email buddies and they sent it on too and soon it didn't just sound like Vonnegut, it was Vonnegut.
And several years later, a university president read the column as part of her commencement address and said that Kurt Vonnegut wrote it--proof that no one is immune from the Email Gullibility Virus. (Yes, this did really happen.)

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