On the Web, Every Day is April Fool's

April 1 -- In the spirit of P.T. Barnum, web hoaxers know a sucker clicks every minute and then some.

The Internet, simply by its nature, is a place for suckers to breed and multiply and to form unwitting relationships with hucksters.

Through the Web, chat rooms, e-mail and more, hucksters can spread the germs of phenomena faster than P.T. Barnum could have ever presented us with the half man/half woman specimen.

"Hysteria has its own momentum," said Rob Rosenberger, computer virus expert and editor-in-chief of vmyths.com, a Web site devoted to dispelling virus hoaxes.

"The media latches on and is part of the hysteria machine. So, viruses, like the original hoax of the Good Times virus get spread and the media covers it and then it turns out to be nothing, but rarely do people get a follow up."

That virus supposedly had the ability to erase a computer's hard drive.

Then, there was the supposed Post Office five-cent surcharge on e-mails, a planned "Bill 602P," that turned out to be an e-mail Internet hoax that circulated from in-box to in-box for much of last year.

Think of all the e-mails you've received telling you some dying person would be aided if you forwarded an e-mail, or some charity would benefit, or perhaps just that you'd be helping your luck, or that of your friends.

Pregnant Men and More

Ling Mingwei, a New York City-based artist, designed the Web site malepregnancy.com which includes video and tales of the first male pregnancy in the world.

If a user clicks on "Current Vitals" he is greeted with this update on Mingwei's condition: "Mr. Lee's pregnancy has been remarkably normal.

"Early in the pregnancy, he experienced some severe facial acne but otherwise, no significant medical problems. Mr. Lee's blood pressure is normal and his fundal height is now at 37cm from the symphysis pubis. He is starting to experience some minor hemorrhoids and incontinence." It's all attributed to Elizabeth Preatner, M.D., Ph.D., GenoChoice Laboratory.