NEW YORK -- Free trips to Disney World, courtesy of Microsoft Corp.? Free soda from Coca-Cola? Free cars from Honda?

Forget it!You don't have to wait for April Fools' Day. Every day is a joke on the Internet. As the Net grows, so does the number of hoaxes and other mischief carried through e-mail.

Rumors, pranks and hoaxes are not unique to the Internet, but they spread more quickly because of it, said Barbara Mikkelson, who runs a Web site that tries to dispel such myths.

"Before, when I had a hot piece of gossip, I had to find my best friend and share it over a fence," she said. "Now I don't have to wait."

Take the Neiman Marcus "cookie recipe." Someone supposedly is billed $250 for the store's $2.50 recipe. In revenge, she forwards copies of the recipe to friends -- and urges them to do the same.

When the rumor began circulating offline more than a decade ago, the department store didn't sell cookies at its restaurants. The tale later made its way to the Internet -- and the company still gets calls and letters.

To play along, Neiman Marcus created a recipe and then gave it away -- for free. "It can be a big distraction," spokeswoman Ginger Reeder said. "The only way you handle it is with good humor and grace."

No one quite knows the roots of such myths.

"I suspect they are the result of creative minds trapped in boring jobs," said Brian Maddox of Barrington, Ill., a regular recipient of electronic chain letters.

But such messages can clog company computers, trigger mistrust or encourage risky behavior. Internet users tired of virus hoaxes might ignore real threats. Sunbathers believing that sunscreen causes blindness might avoid the salve and risk sunburn or skin cancer.

David Spalding, who writes the online column "Hoax du Jour," said friends and relatives often spread such "cyberban legends" with good intent. They are difficult to stop, he said, because "it's hard to tell Grandma or your brother, 'Don't send me e-mail.'"

While Internet veterans may see through the hoaxes, newcomers often do not. As they get wiser, new generations of believers log on.

"People bring with them some old habits they learned from getting most of their information from the traditional media, mostly the ability to trust," said David Emery, who tracks urban legends for About.com. "They are not prepared for the anarchy."

Emery offers these tips: Assume contents are false unless proven otherwise. Be skeptical if an offer -- free Coke, free cars -- appears overly generous. Verify before forwarding.

Alissa Strauss of Chicago learned that lesson. On the off-chance that she could replace an 11-year-old junker, she forwarded the Honda "promotion" to friends. Instead of a car, she got back Honda's denial and a friend's threat: "Never do this again."

"I really need a car," Strauss said later. "I just hoped, even though I don't ever believe in these."

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Some companies may not be so forgiving. Citing a nonexistent study, one prankster falsely claimed that Kentucky Fried Chicken uses no chicken and thus had to change its name to KFC. The company posted a denial on its Web site and vowed to find the troublemaker.

For Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, chain letters are an abuse of technology and a waste of time. "There's a lot of hooey on the Internet," he wrote on his company's Web site.

Charles Hymes, who runs Don't Spread That Hoax online, laughs -- and agrees.

"The line between a hoax and a joke is sometimes pretty thin," he conceded. "There's nothing so outrageous, so goofy, that it won't be believed by thousands and thousands of people."

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