Urban myths that somehow, people still believe
Discussion
Today I was reminded of one of the urban myths that I thought had been forgotten about 10+ years ago.
It concerns the apparent feature within all ATM machines and cards that if you are ever being "forced" to withdraw money against your will, all you have to do is enter your PIN code in reverse and the police will be immediately alerted to your location and be able to apprehend the person stealing from you.
All the people who share this, are instantly asked "why are you sharing this? It obviously cannot work, because if you have a pin number like 8008, you can't put that in backwards. Or what if you have 2542, how many times have you accidentally hit 2452 and never had the cops swoop down on you?"
But thanks mostly to Facebook, it seems people still believe, and pass on, this useless information to other people and yet still won't question doing it again even after you've foolishly fallen into the trap of pointing out the error of their ways.
What other such myths are still perpetuated that you can't believe are going on? Or have you seen any new ones?
It concerns the apparent feature within all ATM machines and cards that if you are ever being "forced" to withdraw money against your will, all you have to do is enter your PIN code in reverse and the police will be immediately alerted to your location and be able to apprehend the person stealing from you.
All the people who share this, are instantly asked "why are you sharing this? It obviously cannot work, because if you have a pin number like 8008, you can't put that in backwards. Or what if you have 2542, how many times have you accidentally hit 2452 and never had the cops swoop down on you?"
But thanks mostly to Facebook, it seems people still believe, and pass on, this useless information to other people and yet still won't question doing it again even after you've foolishly fallen into the trap of pointing out the error of their ways.
What other such myths are still perpetuated that you can't believe are going on? Or have you seen any new ones?
TwigtheWonderkid said:
Posh is an acronym of port out, starboard home.
ah yes, this reminds me of another acronym I saw recentlyPeople were sharing on Facebook, from one of the many many pages set up specifically to get likes and to sell your details to hackers. that "News" was an acronym for "Notable Events, Weather and Sports" which was a "huge revelation" after all these years.
Instead of just being the plural of "New" which it always has been.
bobtail4x4 said:
You dont need planning to build in your own property.
ohh and if I get away with it for a few years it will all go away....
Up to 10% of the original property size, you do not. ohh and if I get away with it for a few years it will all go away....
And after 12 years it hasn't been discovered and proceedings have been brought against you, then you do indeed get away with it.
shep1001 said:
Haven't got time to read all 7 pages yet but.......
I keep seeing the one on Faceb
ks about putting you PIN number in backwards if you get held up at the cash point & the old bill will come steaming in to arrest the perp whilst your cash & card is safely held by the machine.
That was the very first example in the thread! I keep seeing the one on Faceb
ks about putting you PIN number in backwards if you get held up at the cash point & the old bill will come steaming in to arrest the perp whilst your cash & card is safely held by the machine.Wiccan of Darkness said:
BobToc said:
Didn't go through 17 pages, but the idea that everyone gets an A / 1st at uni if a classmate dies.
Yup. That's not even an urban 'myth' it's just pure bks. If a classmate dies, you get dispensations or the degree awarded based on current progress but you're never automatically given a first. Otherwise every student at 3rd level will bump off a classmate to get a first.One of my classmates died during out A Level year.
We didn't get any dispensation about grades etc. Her boyfriend got a lot off school, understandably, and was offered the chance to defer his university application by a year, and the school allowed him to attend for free when he came back to sit his A Levels. However, he still had to do all the work but this was 6 months/year later when they did the first round of exams in the January.
However I haven't seen him since then, and that was 2003 so I don't know what else happened.
Similarly, a girl I was at uni with, her brother died suddenly when she was about to do her finals and so she didn't sit them with us. But I don't know what then did happen to her as that was 2006 and I didn't keep in touch with her either.
Lance Catamaran said:
The Chevrolet/Vauxhall Nova selling poorly in Spanish-speaking countries because it translates to "won't go". Even if that's what it does mean, does anyone believe that one of the biggest companies in the world didn't employ a single person who spoke Spanish and would have pointed it out?
I think it was Ford who had the same issue when trying to sell the Pinto truck in Brazil (or other country). Pinto was local slang for "Small Penis" and so nobody would buy one. So they then re-badged it with whatever the local word for "Horse" was and sales increased. CanAm said:
schmunk said:
In case anyone doesn't already know: https://www.lifewithoutplastic.com/store/common_pl...
These ladies are paranoid about the effects of these dangerous plastic bottles. If only they knew that they also contained the potentially lethal Dihydrogen Monoxide as well! 
This is the Most Watched video as of 9.40am today:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/health-40513613/is-it...
lowdrag said:
It's probably already turned up, but_
A woman, a dog and a walnut tree,
The better you beat them the better they be.
Or, translated_
Be I Dorset be I buggery comes up from Wareham
I knows a girl with Calico drawers and I knows how to tear'em.
Do you need another pint of cider to become intelligible?A woman, a dog and a walnut tree,
The better you beat them the better they be.
Or, translated_
Be I Dorset be I buggery comes up from Wareham
I knows a girl with Calico drawers and I knows how to tear'em.
another that did the rounds whilst I was at school, don't really remember why
Michael Jackson was famously involved in advertising Pepsi back in the 80s
But apparently he didn't like the taste of Pepsi and so he was given Coca-Cola put into a Pepsi bottle/glass etc whenever he was "on camera" with the beverage.
Michael Jackson was famously involved in advertising Pepsi back in the 80s
But apparently he didn't like the taste of Pepsi and so he was given Coca-Cola put into a Pepsi bottle/glass etc whenever he was "on camera" with the beverage.
generationx said:
Red Bull famously do this. They don't care what's in the can/bottle as long as it has their logo on the outside.
I get that for things like the F1 drivers etc, where on track they will be drinking water. What I meant to say was that "For the purposes of the advert filming, the liquid that looked like Pepsi in the glass/can he was drinking from, was actually Coca-Cola"
That was the "myth" that did the rounds
The Mad Monk said:
Someone actually cares about this?
I don't know if anyone actually cares in any meaningful way, but it was a "myth" that I heard more than once in the 90s. But as a brief aside to this topic, I'm vaguely remembering how it went back when I was maybe 11/12 years old, back when peer pressure was far more apparent than it is now and there was a desperate need to "fit in" with everyone. Pepsi was seen as being inferior to Coca-Cola, and again, for no other reason than we were 10/11 and we had no actual worries, children who drank Pepsi, or said they preferred Pepsi, were mocked. This was not helped by the fact that it was the peak time for all the inappropriate jokes about Michael Jackson and his sexual habits, and so again, by association, Pepsi was "not good" given that MJ was "gay" and therefore you were "gay" for drinking it. But another pupil told us that MJ actually hated Pepsi, and he drank Coca-Cola and made the Pepsi adveristers fill the can with Coke for him to drink in the adverts.
I just wondered if this was an actual rumour/myth that did the rounds, or if it was actually true, or if it was just something made up by a schoolmate to try and divert from being mocked for having a can of Pepsi.
Lance Catamaran said:
Look like Ford Cougar front lights as well?
On the subject of urban legends, how about the mobile speed camera operator that accidentally picks up a low flying jet fighter, which duly gets a missile lock on him? That one still does the rounds quite often.
I'd forgotten that one! I wonder if The Sun or Daily Express will fall for it if we email it in?On the subject of urban legends, how about the mobile speed camera operator that accidentally picks up a low flying jet fighter, which duly gets a missile lock on him? That one still does the rounds quite often.
PixelpeepS3 said:
We have 15 Motorhomes/PS4/iPhone/Range Rovers/BMW's that can't be sold because they are old models/been unwrapped/slightly damaged boxes
To Win Simply;
1. Like our picture/Comment what colour you want
2. Share our picture
3. Winners will be announced at random
Always reminds me of this:To Win Simply;
1. Like our picture/Comment what colour you want
2. Share our picture
3. Winners will be announced at random
https://youtu.be/xsYoeoEE3ww
Brother D said:
duckwhistle said:
By careful shift choices a fireman can serve his entire career without ever fighting a fire.
Apparently many years back one of the airlines at Luton sacked an Airhostess, because they found out she was swapping her shifts with colleagues and managed to get paid the best part of a year without actually doing hardly any flying, and just taking the monthly base pay while she was working 9-5 elsewhere.(The base pay is pretty low for juniors, but made up by trip allowance/flight hours etc, so the majority want to/need to fly regularly).
Its a feasible story but there would be more to it than the above.
fatandwheezing said:
The animals used by a popular fast food chain are now so far removed from chickens and are actually closer to rabbits, that the shops are not legally allowed to be called Kentucky Fried Chicken anymore, hence KFC.
I used to like that one, plus of course its much more fun than the real reason. On a related note, this reminds me of another popular urban myth which we all believed (and many still believe to this day) about the woman who caused "CAUTION: HOT" on every cup of coffee ever sold since she burned herself on McDonald's coffee because she was "too stupid" to realise that coffee was going to be hot and burned herself and sued for millions of dollars. I'll admit that this one is probably a bit beyond the scope of this thread because of how prevalent the myth is, and how little is known about the truth, you don't ever really hear it debunked properly at all.
eybic said:
There's a documentary on Netflix about it https://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/Hot-Coffee/70167106
Ooh, nice. I hadn't seen that. I had it explained in a law and ethic type class I did as part of my uni course, even though we were not studying US law for anything, I think it was more of a sidetrack to explain the principles involved, plus of course how if you have enough money you can spread loads of misinformation about peopleGassing Station | The Lounge | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff