Vocal Point : True or false: If tale is too good to be true …

In November, I received a friend’s e-mail warning that, as of Dec. 1, “all cell phone numbers will be released to telemarketing companies and you will start to receive sales calls. YOU WILL BE CHARGED FOR THESE CALLS … to prevent this, call 888-382-1222 from your cell phone. …”

Why hadn’t I heard of this through regular news sources, which thoroughly covered the original Do Not Call registry information. My cow-pie detector began quivering.

Did you get a similar e-mail and call to register your cell phone?

You were “snookered,” as an embarrassed friend said, by an urban legend that’s actually been around for a while. Untrue, but so authentic-sounding, many people in good faith passed it on.

Urban legends are prolific; it’s hard to escape hearing them.

What are urban legends? Folklorist Harold Jan Brunvand, in his book, “Too Good to be True: The Colossal Book of Urban Legends,” says urban legends are “… true stories that are too good to be true. These popular fables describe presumably real (though odd) events that happened to a friend of a friend. And they are usually told by credible persons narrating them in a believable style because they do believe them. The settings and actions in urban legends are realistic and familiar – homes, offices, hotels, shopping malls, freeways, etc. – and the human characters in urban legends are quite ordinary people. However, the bizarre, comic or horrifying incidents that occur to these people go one step too far to be believable.”

Urban legends play to our fears, involving such horrors as crazed criminals, hoaxes, vague unknown dangers, manipulative corporations, technology run amok and faulty products. They’re often wildly funny, though some have caused serious harm to reputable companies.

It’s the whiff of credibility that makes them so powerful. But it’s impossible to trace them to a verifiable source.

I’ve discovered some old urban legends are still believed by acquaintances, told with utter conviction. Last year, a friend related a spooky story about geologists drilling in Siberia. When the drill hit hollow space nine miles down, the temperature measured more than 2,000 degrees and astonished workers heard millions of tormented souls screaming. A helluva tale.

Here’s a current urban legend. In September, singer Bono reportedly told a concert audience that every time he clapped at three second intervals, someone died of AIDS, and a man yelled at him to stop. Wow, a new way for the clap to kill.

Often based on kernels of truth, these cautionary tales thrive worldwide and, through retelling, are embellished and updated with localized place names and people to create grand scenarios that never happened. Even Spokane has a place in the canon.

In one urban legend credited to Spokane, a woman comes home to find her Doberman pinscher in serious distress. She rushes him to the vet; returning home, she receives the vet’s urgent call, telling her to leave and call 911. In her closet police find a bloodied burglar missing three fingers (found in the Doberman).

There are also true stories from our area that have achieved widespread urban legend status – the three streakers in a local Denney’s restaurant who had their car stolen during a January 2004 escapade; the Spokane bank teller who in October 1988 refused to validate parking for working, grubbily-dressed millionaire John Barrier who, angered, cashed out and transferred his account to Seafirst Bank. This has mutated into an urban legend about a shabby millionaire who, after mistreatment by a snobby clerk, buys the establishment to fire him in revenge.

With advancing technology, tales previously told by word of mouth have found explosive growth on the Internet, arriving via e-mail alerts. Where once people might have told just a few of their friends, now they can inform the multitudes by clicking Forward … and Forward …. and Forward.

When you hear a story that’s “too good to be true” (or too bad to be true), Brunvand’s books and two great Web sites – Snopes.com and TruthOrFiction.com – are great resources to help separate urban legends from the truth. And you’ll get some great belly laughs, too.

Say, did you know that if you’re confronted with a robber at an ATM, you can punch in your PIN number backward to summon the police?

Check it out!