Cyber-Prankster Entangles the Internet in a Web of Deception

It’s No. 12 on the “25 Hottest Urban Legends” list of the San Fernando Valley Folklore Society -- an e-mail that warns about a murderous blush spider (Arachnius gluteus) that lurks beneath toilet seats in public restrooms.

It’s false, says the society’s website: www.snopes.com.

There is no A. gluteus, nor have any spiders latched onto the backsides of any such victims, including an unidentified “Los Angeles lawyer” mentioned in the e-mail.

UC Riverside’s department of entomology said it found the hoaxer, who explained that he wrote the e-mail “to show that (1) people are gullible, (2) that the Internet is a frighteningly fast way to spread misinformation, and (3) that people forward information without checking [its] veracity.”

Perhaps the “Los Angeles lawyer” was used in the e-mail to show that the spiders were performing some humanitarian work too.

Taking a bow? Ginger Graser of Rancho Palos Verdes wonders if the security company she read about requires any of its male guards to join one special patrol (see accompanying).

It doesn’t add up: A market that claims to give customers 105% caught the eye of Roger Hardy of Big Bear City (see accompanying).

Branching out: Donna Acosta of San Dimas wants to know whether one unusual residential structure on the market comes with a treehouse (see accompanying).

We’ll drink to that!: The gambling and boozing era of L.A. newspaper folks was brought alive by photographer Lou Mack in a colorful talk at a meeting of fellow retirees in Burbank.

Mack, a photog for 56 years, spoke of the 1950s, when the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department donated three seized slot machines to the local media for their press club.

It was a time when a photog (not Mack) missed the removal of a body from a canyon because he had been drinking -- and then blithely asked the workers to reenact the operation (a firing offense nowadays).

Mack, the model for the crusty photog in the “Eve Diamond” newspaper mysteries of Denise Hamilton, had an eye for human-interest shots, including a group of quadruplets on the street near a billboard that said, “This could happen to you -- are you fully insured?”

miscelLAny: “Here Come the Choppers,” a new song performed by Loudon Wainwright III, rhapsodizes about the fun of living beneath LAPD and traffic copters in Southern California. It is noteworthy, if for no other reason, for being the first song, I believe, to mention the late Fairfax-area eatery Mo Better Meaty Meat Burgers.

Steve Harvey can be reached at (800) LATIMES, Ext. 77083, by mail at Metro, L.A. Times, 202 W. 1st St., L.A. 90012, and by e-mail at steve.harvey@latimes.com.