10. SaveToby.com
Never, to my knowledge, has a cute little fluffy bunny been so cruelly — or profitably — used. Condemned to the stewpot unless his anonymous keepers received at least $50,000 in online "donations" by June 30, 2004, Toby the rabbit became an instant cause celebre, even though the Web site erected in his name showed every indication of being a hoax. Was anyone truly surprised when the geniuses holding Toby for ransom postponed the date of his demise to benefit their book deal? Can "Save Toby: The Movie" be far behind?

9. A Tsunami Orphan's Plea for Help
Sadly, the story of Sophia Michl, a 10-year-old girl orphaned in Phuket, Thailand by the December 26, 2004 tsunami, turned out not to be a hoax. After her photo was posted on the Phuket Hospital Web site it found its way to inboxes all over the world, eventually catching the attention of an acquaintance. Though she was quickly reunited with surviving family members in Europe, Sophia's picture continues to circulate via email to this day.

8. Penny Brown Is Missing ... Still!
"Missing" since 2001, 9-year-old Penny Brown may well be the most famous little girl who never existed. Four years later, the fictional plea on her behalf still exhorts readers to send news of her whereabouts to an equally fictional email address, zicozicozico@hotmail.com. Will this chain letter ever die? Regrettablly, it seems there'a about as much chance of that as there is of Penny Brown being found.

7. New Orleans Croc(k)
Authorities predicted alligator sightings in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, but photographs of an (allegedly) 21-foot-long monster crocodile (allegedly) captured in the flooded streets of New Orleans exceeded everyone's wildest expectations. Oddly enough, it also looked exactly like the monster crocodile captured and photographed in the Republic of the Congo one year before. Coincidence?

6. Pulled Over by a Fake Cop? Dial *677 for the Real Thing!
Nothing beats a horror story for staying power, and this one, despite the odd revision or two, is still frightening people into clicking their Forward buttons three years after it was first written up as an email. Not that the tale of "Lauren," a college student who cleverly used her mobile phone to escape the clutches of a rapist impersonating a police officer, is necessarily false — it could well be true, or at least partially true. But you can't expect a special emergency number set aside for citizens of Ontario, Canada to work if you live in, say, Virginia, can you?

5. Ciara's Sex-Change Operation
Among the most popular search queries here all year long was the question "Is Ciara a man?" — which may seem nonsensical if you've ever seen the voluptuous "crunk" singer perform onstage, but it's a quandary that nevertheless gripped a great many fans in 2005, apparently. The answer — from the diva's own mouth — is no, by the way. Actress Jamie Lee Curtis was unavailable for comment.

4. Telemarketers Want Your Cell Phone Number
Let there be no doubt, the only thing Americans hate more than unsolicited calls from telemarketers is the prospect of receiving them via cell phone. Sparked by announced plans to compile a universal 411 directory of private numbers, this email alert urging recipients to add their mobile phone information to the National Do Not Call Registry hasn't lost an ounce of steam since it went into circulation in late 2004.

3. Photos of Hurricane Katrina's Approach
This set of ominously beautiful images of massive storm formations was circulated under the pretense of documenting Hurricane Katrina's deadly landfall in Louisiana and Mississippi in September, but when we tracked down the photographer he told us the photos had actually been taken the previous year in locales far removed from Katrina's path.

2. Bill Gates Will Pay You for Forwarding This!!!
Eight years old and annoying as ever, the Microsoft "email tracking" hoax, in all its many variants, must be the most forwarded prank message of all time. The secret of its success? None of the folks forwarding it know it's a prank. It is gullibility to this degree that gives proof to the old Internet saying, "There's a sucker born every nanosecond."

1. The Deadly Wave
At this point it should come as no surprise that one of the most widely shared photographs of the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami of December 26, 2004 also turned out to be the phoniest. Which is too bad, because despite the collage-like quality of the image and its implausibility, it was also breathtaking in a larger-than-life, "The Day After Tomorrow" kind of way.