The modem Surcharge hoax is back to haunt us on the internet!

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>>This was in monday's paper [current date]:
>>
>>"This is to inform everyone that the House of Reps is going
>>to vote within the next two weeks on a bill that would add a
>>long-distance charge to your phone bill each time you access
>>the Internet. This includes e-mail. If you find this
>>unsatisfactory, I urge you to contact your represesntative
>>in Congress and inform him of your opinions. You can e-mail
>>the Rep. via the following website: www.house.gov/writerep/
>>Be sure to tell your friends."

This hoax started in as a rumor, over 15 years ago.

It all began in around 1983 when electronic bulletin boards and modeming were still in infancy and everyone had a 300 bps modem (SLOW!). The FCC and the phone company met and one of the subjects BRIEFLY discussed was charging for modem calls. The phone company in thinking about the complex info structures required for billing and the dubious methods of checking, quickly dismissed the idea as not feasible.

But the rumor had been already started on BBSes (Electronic Bulletin Boards - that's where modem users called other folks computers directly and posted and read messages). The messages circulated around the US and urged people to write to their Congressmen protesting the modem-surcharge (as it came to be called). Irate modem users also sent letters to the FCC.

Some Congressmen were hit with a lot of letters and they actually wrote back, asking people to post messages to tell folks to stop writing.

After a year, it died down but 2 years later, the story resurrected and circulated again, and has made the rounds every two years ever since. About a year ago, it was retrofitted for the Internet. The modem surcharge has become the Internet surcharge. But the message is the same, to write to your congressman and the FCC.

The FCC has issued several official notices about this rumor being absolutely false and there being no plans for any type of modem surcharge. But still the rumor prevails. And when it comes up again, it upsets many users who might be too neophyte to remember when it circulated previously. And Congressmen get letters begging them to vote against this imaginary surcharge.

The last time the story circulated in March, one of the congressmen received 85 letters begging him to vote against the surcharge!

Most of the things floating around the Web are hoaxes. There are many sites where you can check out weird or scary e-mails. Here are three:

• http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org
• http://www.snopes.com
• http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/hoax.html

Recently someone who found out something they sent was a hoax commented "like we have so much spare time to mess with these!".  That's it in a nutshell.  Hoax forwards are a waste of time for everyone.  And the reason the same ones keep coming back to haunt us is that people don't research forwards before sending them out.  With forwards, a good rule of thumb may be, if in doubt, don't send.