ManBeef

ManBeef was an elaborate hoax site beginning in January 2001, news of which spread primarily by means of e-mail forwarding. The site purported to sell human meat, and even offered tips and recipes on preparing meals. Colorful pictures and illustrations adorned the site to further the appearance of legitimacy. Like Bonsai Kitten, many individuals fell for the hoax and were disgusted. E-mails circulating would often be in the form of petitions pushing to stop the immorality.

To avoid exposing the hoax, ManBeef claimed they did not allow customers to purchase meat products from the site itself. "We do this, because we prefer to deal with our customers on a more personal basis," the disclaimer stated in part [http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/hoaxes/manbeef.htm] . The only products actually available to purchase were souvenir merchandise such as mousepads, mugs and t-shirts.

Traffic

At its peak, the site received about 500,000 hits daily [http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/manbeef.html] . It was causing so much controversy that the U.S. Food & Drug Administration launched an investigation, and found no wrongdoing because there was no evidence of human meat actually being sold [http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/manbeef.html] . In June 2001, the creator of the site, who went by the pseudonym of "Joseph Christopherson" [http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/weekly/aa072301a.htm] , declared that the site was indeed a hoax [http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/hoaxes/manbeef.htm] , and in July, issued a statement to The Columbian [http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/m/manbeef.htm] stating the purpose of the site was to "outrage the more sensitive viewers" [http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/weekly/aa072301a.htm] .

Demise

In 2005, the registration for the ManBeef.com domain name expired and was quickly snapped up by a pornography-themed cybersquatter. As of July 2006, the name still exists in this state.

ee also

* Hufu

External links

* [http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/hoaxes/manbeef.htm Snopes debunking]
* [http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/m/manbeef.htm Truth or Fiction debunking]
* [http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/Hoaxipedia/Manbeef.com/ Museum of Hoaxes debunking]
* [http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/weekly/aa072301a.htm About.com debunking]
* [http://www.sjc.com/manbeef/ A mirror of the original site] (some pages redirect to an archive.org snapshot from a different date than the one linked above)