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Examples: [Collected via e-mail, March 2014] Origins: A common form of hoax perpetrated on Internet users since the late 1990s is the claim that some particular popular free service, whether it be Gmail, Facebook, YouTube, or the like, is overloaded or losing money or experiencing some other crippling technical crisis that requires them to purge the accounts of users unless those account holders follow the instructions contained in a particular message, typically directing them to forward or repost that message. In March 2014 the popular online photo-sharing site Instagram was the latest target of this perennial jape. (See our primary article on the history of this hoax.) The bottom line is that it's the same leg-pull no matter which e-mail, instant messaging service, or social networking site is mentioned, how authoritative the signature appears to be, or how fancy the visual presentation of the exhortation to forward the letter to all your buddies.
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