To get so irritated when people pretend things happened to them that clearly didn't?

[CalamityKate]

I was watching This Morning earlier and they had an email from a woman who trotted out the whole "Dug Up Rabbit" story. Of course Colleen and Ruth and Eammon had a right old laugh about it.

Which is lovely, but it didn't happen. It's an urban myth that's been repeated and repeated and repeated - often by celebrities on chat shows.

Snopes

It REALLY irritates me when people do this. Why lie? What on earth is the point of emailing a programme, pretending that something happened to you when it didn't?

I've seen it on forums too - people tell a story that is either clearly a lie (as in the Snopes example) or it just doesn't ring true and you just KNOW it's either completely made up or VERY heavily embellished.

I was actually tempted to email This Morning

nickel I had a friend (hahaha, really though! I can name the friend and everything ) who was stabbed with a syringe in a nightclub. No AIDS warnings or anything, she just found a needle poking out of her leg.

ugh.
that snopes article does give loads of real examples of it.

MIL tells a few tall tales that sound a bit

Her main one is she drove to town with small daughter sleeping in back seat of car. She went to Post Office leaving girl in car asleep. Then she absent mindedly came out Post Office and caught the bus home. Leaving girl in car. She went back later having realised her mistake to retrieve daughter. she thinks it's hilarious that this happened. Please someone tell me it's an urban myth.

Omg

The Le -(dash)-a story. DP was told this by a teacher juror when head on jury service. Have mentioned it in conversation at work a few times (we often get interesting names coming up) people are going to think I am a bullshit merchant. Honestly (stamps foot).

I have heard the shaven child in shopping centre toilets several times. Also the student -6 -floors -up one.

Wasn't there one about picking up a lunatic hitchhiker?

I totally believed the handbag on the door burglar one

And the Beckham one was actually Alton Towers. It was booked for a wedding but they wanted it for a birthday. They got a full refund, a free wedding on a date of their choosing and a cheque to clear their mortgage. How is that so hard to believe? My god you're all so cynical

My favourite is the one in the car. The people get tailgated by someone constantly flashing their lights and beeping. They end up getting so scared they drive straight to the police station. Run inside closely followed by crazy tailgaters only to be told they were trying to get their attention as when they stopped at traffic lights/the petrol station/shop someone got in the back of the car.

Used to scare me silly!

Dogshit - thst's the one! (as if you wouldn't stop the car to check it over before driving to police station!)

I know!

Something similar happened to my nanna though.

She'd taken a friend for a drive and some idiot behind them was flashing his lights and making gestures. She eventually moved as close to the side as she could and he went past. Her friend took his reg number, luckily they're both feisty old souls so were far more angry than scared.

later that day my uncle was discussing at length how she really shouldn't be driving anymore as he wasn't sure her eyesight was up to it.

Yep, he was the mad tailgater and his "gestures" were

His mad "gestures" were waves.

Stupid phone, that story really isn't interesting enough for a two-part cliff hanger ending

Is the Chelsea smiler one an urban myth? I can't find it on snopes, it scared the bejesus out of me at school.

I remember a day of utter hysteria at school where people were convinced Chelsea smilers were going round in a big blue van looking out for school children who could not sing Chelsea songs. Apparently they would cut each side of your mouth and then punch you in the stomach so you ripped each side of your cheek do it can go look like a 'smile'

The things kids think up.

I only found this in Wiki

About: yeah the same thing went round my school. I was terrified, between that and my grandad telling me Saddam Hussain was going to blow us all up, being 10 years old in the '80's was a scary time.

My aunt is a great one for these stories and has told several over the years.

When I was a teenager I can remember her telling me that she got a spider bite when on holiday in the Canary Isles and it started to itch when she was on the plane home and she scratched it and lots of baby spiders ran out. She even had a bandage on her neck so must have been another injury she decided to make more interesting.

She also specifically phoned me when I was six months pregnant with DD to tell me about a 'friend' at work who was six months pregnant, telling her she felt a bit ill and was just going to the loo for a wee, five minutes later she hadnt returned and my aunt went to look for her to find that she had given birth in the toilet.

Why would you tell someone six months pregnant that story? Its very hard to week with your legs crossed.

Curried cat, pus chicken, exploding cacti,

Anyone else starting to feel a little queasy?

Can't stop reading tho ......

Every Christmas I hear a variation on the spider one where someone gets last years cards out a gets a paper cut on their tongue when licking the envelope only for it to swell up and have baby spiders burst out where a spider has laid eggs on the cards during the year.

The one that was the vogue at school was about a woman using a live lobster as a sex toy [boak]

Puppy - my nan really did leave my mum on the bus as a baby; I've heard the story a dozen times. She also drove to the shops and got the bus back (separate occasion) - knowing her, I completely believe it, especially with baby-brain in the mix.

Plus, it happened to some friends called Joey and Chandler? [buwink]

I don't even find the story about the glittery flannel vaguely entertaining. Obviously it must have spread because people thought it showed they had a good sense of humour - how wierd...

A variation on the dug up rabbit story really did happen to my sister. A neighbour knocked on the door and told her her poor cat had been run over. Her partner went to collect the remains, brought them back, and they buried them. Sister in floods of tears. Several hours later, who walks in the back door...?

When my sister first clocked the cat, she thought she was going mad/seeing a ghost. Thing is, the poor dead moggie really was identical to my sister's cat.

They never found out who the deceased belonged to, despite asking around the village.

Enjoying this thread, but it's a bit frightening how many of my older relations seem particularly vulnerable to believing stuff on the internet. Maybe something about it being written down makes it more believable for them, although I am sure they would all say 'don't believe everything you read in the papers' etc.

I don't mind them sending emails around telling us not to drink from plastic bottles that have been sitting in the car etc, but unfortunately there have been worse consequences from them believing some of this stuff. A friend of one of my older relatives (no, really!) got the police to come and give a talk at an older people's club about internet scams, which I thought was very sensible. Something to consider if you think your relatives might be vulnerable.

Is that plastic bottle one an urban myth? MIL has a special bottle in her car, decants all bottled water into it in case of poisoning. Somethign she read on the internet of course.

It's not as straightforward as some urban myths Anxious but it basically is -snopes tells all

There was a bloke on R4 this afternoon telling the kitkat on train story .

One of my friends on Facebook made a status about the orange juice on cereal instead of milk thing... Seriously, how can so many people not notice the difference between milk and orange juice?

I've heard the one about herpes from McDonalds because someone spunked in the mayo more times than I care to remember, also the one about a tumor in a chicken burger. And so many people still fall for the kidnapped in supermarket and found in toilets with a shaved head story.

Also heard the one about nails in bits of chicken left in parks for dogs to find a lot over the years, though not sure if that one's a myth or not.

BillyBollyBandy is your friend my mother?!