But the occasional genuine incident can, of course, make it easier, subsequently, to spread alarm and so make hoaxes far more damaging.
Prompted by an outbreak of anthrax hoaxes, Chief State's Attorney John M. Bailey is proposing a law that would make hoaxes that inconvenience or harm the public punishable by up to five years in prison.
The video went viral, earning 23 million views as culture vultures relished in Culkin's rare embrace of the character which defined his childhood, led anonymous internet people to make hoaxes about his death, and caused other distasteful byproducts of childhood celebrity.
One of the children referred to him was a young girl of 14 who had made hoax calls to the police.
In one recently-discovered British scam, off-duty firemen in the West Midlands made hoax calls at the ends of shifts to trigger extra pay for their colleagues.
A former baggage handler accused of making hoax transmissions that caused a Virgin flight to abort its landing is a bright young man who has an obsession with aircraft, a court has heard.
Earlier this week the 19-year-old pled guilty to making hoax bomb threats targeting UK schools.
Now Barriss is facing up to 20 years in prison after Barriss pleaded guilty "to making hoax bomb threats in phone calls to the headquarters of the FBI and the Federal Communications Commission in Washington, D.C".
A San Diego teenager was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of making hoax bomb threats as part of an online gaming group that made similar threats in five states and Canada, police said.
In 2008, as tensions mounted between Pakistan and India over an attack on the Indian city of Mumbai by another militant group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Mr. Sheikh managed to make a hoax call to President Asif Ali Zardari and the army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, in which he pretended to be the Indian foreign minister and threatened Pakistan with an Indian attack.
