In 1993 — before email became the standard form of professional communication — facsimile machine auto in Memphis , Tennessee , lead off sprinkle out strange documents . Instead of the teetotal data that office workers had do to expect — like HR insurance and expense reports — the text edition warned of a “ blood foundation ” and gang cleanup targeting random citizen . The faxes appeared to fall fromofficial sourcesconnected to the police , and though the exact beginning was n’t always clear , that did n’t weigh . The message was enough to get the great unwashed ’s aid .
claim from interested citizen swamp local police lines . Officers were foil by descriptions of “ lights out , ” a supposed rite of passage in which new gang member drove with their headlights off , wait for number one wood to flash their headlights as a good manners — only for the driver to then become their ignorant victim . No one in law enforcement had hear of the rite , despite the warning ’s prescribed appearing .
The content of these message turned out to be inconsequent — there was no evidence of such activity taking in place Memphis , or anywhere else in the nation — but their manner of speaking method was pregnant . The Inner Light out hoax was a classic deterrent example of “ faxlore , ” a phenomenon that marked the changeover from urban caption spreading by word of mouth to the current eld of spam email andcopypasta .
Message in a Bot
As long as homo have been capable to send text electronically , they ’ve used the technology to spreadmisinformation . Such activity can be follow to teletype machines used at the remnant ofWorld War II . WhenXeroxintroduced the first advanced fax automobile in the sixties , transmitting words and images across great distances in minutes became easy than ever . To “ mail ” a substance to the other side of the res publica , all users had to do was scan their document and input the recipient role ’s telephone number . Any building with astandard phone linecould endure gimmick .
Fax revolutionized inter - office communications , and desk workers quickly found originative role for the machine . Early example of faxlore ( in the first place described asXeroxloreby English professor Michael J. Preston in 1974 ) were moderately unacquainted : Comics , jokes , and sendup of company memos were all commonly distribute this way . In the 1980s and early ‘ 90 , the bogus documents aim on a non-white edge . Urban legends were abundant in this earned run average . Some — like rumors that certain bubble gum brand containedspider eggs — were contained to schoolyards , while others — like accusations of daycare doer conducting satanic rite — inspiredreal - human race panics .
In the past , these falsehoods had mostly traveled by word - of - back talk , as had many myths throughout story , but the facsimile machine motorcar opened up new boulevard for interchangeable urban legends to spread . The nature of the technology allowed one person to air a message across a encompassing area without leave their office staff . And because it existed in the professional world , fax lent a level of authority to arresting title .
Unfit to Print
When they were n’t transmit jokes or prescribed document , facsimile machines were used to open fright . Similar to the Satanic Panic , these new urban legend often made child the victims of an invented threat . One faxlore fraud that pull ahead prominence in the 1980s monish parent of LSD - enlace temporary tattoos . have intercourse as the “ blue star acid ” story , it described drug dealers distributing polluted tattoos mould like star topology or sketch character to kids with the intention of making them reduplicate customers , and was widely apportion via photocopy . A 1988 reputation fromThe Morning Newsreads , “ The warnings pep up parent to watch for blue star Zen in the hands of their kids , arrogate that addiction and even death could result from shaver licking or even just reach out to the stars as they removed them from the paper . ”
Officials debunk the myth numerous times , but they struggled to suppress it . As long as the hearsay spread by facsimile machine , they were playing an impossible - to - win game of Whack - A - Mole . Fliers surfaced in schooling , church service , daycare centre , and other places with a vested interest in the message . The “ Safe and Health Alert ” was sent to Alaska one day and Peru curtly after . One journalistreceived copies of the memorandum from eight unlike states in the fall of 1988 .
The world had n’t bring any adept at tell apart phony faxes by the nineties . In the Memphis country , the “ lights out ” myth raised such alert that the law were forced to hold a press conference addressing it . They assured hoi polloi that no , gang members were n’t beat back around the city with their headlight off , looking for Good Samaritans to stick with home and murder as part of a origin initiation . Just calendar month after the law issued their statement and a local newspaper publisher published a report discrediting the story , the same urban legend sent Chicago into a frenzy . Once again , fax machines were the culprit .
Misinformation Superhighway
official did n’t have to worry about this blade of urban legend for much longer , because shortly after the lightness - out fable infected the country , faxlore lost its relevance . In 1996 , several company ( like Hotmail ) began offeringweb - base e-mail servicesthat were gratis to use from various locations . This was a huge step up from the server - base systems used antecedently , and it changed the plot . By 1997,10 millionweb chain armor accounts had been open around the world , and the internet soon became the preferred mode of interoffice communication — entail those fear - mongering photocopies quickly vanish from Xerox trays .
Unfortunately , bastard news fib did n’t choke as easily . The genre of official - sounding “ warnings ” of nonexistent danger that had originate with facsimile car seamlessly transitioned online . With electronic mail , users could beam misinformation even quicker and to more people across greater distances . As email become more accessible than fax ever was , the amount of people who could institutionalize these messages — and receive them — exploded .
Though we ’re well outfit to catch misleading news report than dupe of the sparkle out and blue star pane hoaxes were in the ‘ 80s and ‘ 90s , electronic urban legends still proliferate . Today ’s myth might say ofmarijuana gummiesbeing distributed to kids instead of LSD tattoos , orhuman traffickerstargeting random citizens instead of ring members . We may never eradicate such viral lies for good , but at the very least , the modern versions waste less paper than their harbinger .
