How can I gently explain to non-techie friends they are the victim of a hoax? [closed]

When it comes to hoaxes and non-techie users, being gentle is really the wrong tactic.

It's only a matter of time before they fall for something that actually harms them, by stealing their information, or something else. They need to learn, and quickly.

Personally I reply all with a link to snopes or elsewhere, explaining that it's a hoax. Then I include this line: "Every email that asks you to forward to all your friends is a hoax, or a joke by somebody that just wants to clog people's email."

I always just direct them to the appropriate debunk on snopes.com. Often I "reply all" so all of his/her other victims get a clue and, I hope, don't forward it on.

I've gotten many fewer of these sorts of messages over the last few years. Either the people who used to send me these things have got a clue, or I just annoyed them enough that they removed me from their e-mail lists. Win for me either way.

I agree with the comments on using Snopes, but since your question asked how to explain the hoax gently, I would often start my reply by something like, "I saw this before and someone told me it's a hoax. Here's a link to an article on Snopes." Depending on the person, I sometimes follow up with a quick explanation of what the Snopes.com site is all about.

The first time or two I'll point them a debunking site like snopes. They will either get the hint or not. if they don't I simply delete their e-mails. If it gets too bad I'll add them to my spam filter blacklist.

One more note, while I don't want to start a flame war, in my opinion snopes itself is not always accurate. It is run by a couple who expend a great deal of energy in trying to keep up with all of hoaxes out there, but they do occasionally put their own slant on things. I am somewhat, OK very, skeptical about anything I read on the internet, including snopes. It is still one of the best sites for debunking hoaxes, but I would not consider their views to the final definitive answer on some subjects.

As a complement to all the other people who mentioned Snopes: I typically do a Google search for some key words and reply with a few of the top links, as well as a suggestion to repeat the same search. That way, someone who doesn't want to believe something just because they read it on one particular website (Snopes) will still have reason to take my reply seriously.