What is the point of urban myths, there are so many of them nowadays. Almost every day on facebook, one of my friends will post one telling everyone to beware of something which is apparently going to kill you or at the very least get you roughed up by some gang.
I don't get it at all, and who starts them anyway?

One of the most recent ones I've seen is warning folk that if you find a small child crying at the side of the road and the child asks you to take them home, then you must not do it as when you get the child 'home' you'll be attacked, raped (or both) by some evildoers just waiting to pounce on you!
The more likely outcome I'd think would be that the police would arrest you for having a child that's not yours in your car and you'd probably be labelled a paedo for life.

So, exactly what is the point of these myths and why do so many people believe them?

(PS sorry if there's already a thread about urban myths on here)

My guess is that they are put about by people with too much time on their hands and think it is fun to worry people.The problem is that some are very plausible.They are not as bad as people who invent viruses simply to cause mayhem and destroy people's computers etc. but they are an absolute menace.

I can recommend snopes.com as an antidote for this kind of nonsense.

Good thread Elizabeth.

This should be an interesting topic.

Totally agree with you on that point Salmon.Hacking is another one. But am sure if caught you can get done for it.

i heard one about some bloke who got nailed to a cross, died and then came back to life, apparently he was the son of this imaginary thing called 'god' who made everything in just seven days!!!!

Lmao, really????

SIX days actually... he rested on the Sunday.

He must not have been in a Union...

I have searched Snopes. Hoax Slayer, Hoax Busters,Sophos,f-secure and none of them have that down as a hoax or an urban myth!

must be true then, not as though someone would base a whole religion on it otherwise

what about the crying boy painting and house fires is that a myth?

[/quote]
SIX days actually... he rested on the Sunday.

He must not have been in a Union... [/quote]

Why diss one urban myth and then quote another? I don't want to get on your back but that caused me to have a little titter.

Usually the point is to spread unease and suspicion but why some people feel the need to invent stories to scare people like the old one about Gypsies/Arabs/Romanians kidnapping a child in a department store and the child being found in the changing room with their hair shaved and about to be taken away, is beyond me.
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/parental/kidnap.asp

Some people who receive these emails innocently pass them on thinking to warn people but they are just perpetuating the malice. One clue is if the story has been obviously altered from an American one and it uses Americanisms like co-worker or cell phone. I always check with Snopes before forwarding anything which sounds fishy.

The dog came in yesterday with a little coloured sticker on his head, when I went out today, the gate had gone.

Good one Bertie

heard of that before, you gate will of been sold on as 'beef' and is now in a burger somewhere

I was "dissing" all of them...the one I quoted about the crying child was just an example of a recent one I've seen, I don't believe it for a moment
I can't understand why folk truly believe them and post them with such sincerity online and usually start the statement with "this really happened to my friend's daughter" or similar

Apparently started by the sun newspaper around 1984-85.

The boy was an orphan takin in by an artist. The orphan was a firestarter (someone who could light fires with the mind) he killed his parents and burnt down the artists apartment and all but his portrait was burnt.

The orphan died in a car crash (the car burst into flames whilest driving) several years later.

The sun did a campaign to destroy all the paintings in the 80's by burning them all (how was it possible to burn them if they didn't burn in the fires?) don't know what came of it.

I would have one of those pictures if I could find one.