What was fake on the internet this week...

I highly recommend the Caitlin Dewey's Intersect bog, where she writes about Digital and Internet Culture for the Washington Post. On Fridays, she gathers and discussed the week's worth of notable hoaxes in one "What was fake on the internet this week..." post.

Simply reading these posts on a regular basis might give you a better idea about how and why "fake stuff" gets published and shared, otherwise, you may want to read Cabel Gathem's "Why People Fall for Dumb Internet Hoaxes",  via The Daily Dot. 

Wanting to know if something on the internet is a hoax or fraud?
Start with what you already know about evaluating information, with emphasis on the two A's in TRAAped:

• Authority:  Who wrote it and what is their background for doing so?

• Accuracy: Do they provide information references and the  references check out? Can the information be verified with other sources? Are the claims plausible?
  
  

Check out Finding Bogus Claims from Flack Check.org

Still stumped? Give these collective fraud detection and truth seeking sites a try!

• Fact Check.org from the Annenberg Public Policy Center, "aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in US politics" by providing the facts to debunk common political misunderstandings and misrepresentations. Quack Watch highlights fraudulent health information, providers, etc.
  

• Snopes,com

• NHS: Behind the Headlines the Science behind the headlines

• Channel 4 Fact Check
  

• The Quackommeter Searches for vocabulary often associated with suspicious claims and common errors of thinking and argument.

• Rational Wiki