Read lots like these in our collection of Tall Tales from the horrible to the funny. A major trend, inspired by the commercialization of the nets, is the money-making hoax. Pyramid schemes where people are asked to send money to those higher on the pyramid in promise of future riches have been with us for a long time. They are getting more ingenious, though. Another one that is terribly persistent is that Microsoft will pay you to test their software.
Fake viruses make good stories, too.
Some of them are pretty amusing. The hoax warnings outnumber real virus warnings by a large magnitude. We maintain a list here of the hoaxes taken from a number of sources on the nets. Check it when you are in doubt. Appeals to sympathy are fodder for many stories, too.