Get a Tan Via Computer? 30K Believed It

Tired of dawdling in front of a computer screen all day while your skin retains that dried-out winter look? Well now you can get a tan right from your computer screen—or so thousands of Britons thought. A UK charity developed the ComputerTan website hoax to raise awareness about skin cancer and duped 30,000 people into visiting, the Times of London reports. Instead of a tan, they got bombarded with cancer facts.

The charity’s founder defended the scheme, noting that skin cancer “is the most common form of cancer in young adults and is largely preventable. The lack of regulation concerning the use of sunbeds is an extremely serious issue, and this campaign highlights the fact that it is high time for a change in the law.”
(More hoax stories.)