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MONEY | On April Fools' Day, don't get snookered by this flock of FINANCIAL FOLKLORE.

EVERYONE loves a good story, which helps to explain the popularity of urban legends--rumors that begin mysteriously, spread like wildfire, and are almost always at least mostly false. There is, of course, a whole genre of crocodiles-in-the-sewer equivalents that have to do with money. You know, a friend of a friend told me ...

DON'T TOUCH THAT DIAL!

AN E-MAIL ALERT that has found its way into countless in boxes warns of scam artists who leave you a message to call a number beginning with an 809 area code. According to the legend, if you call the number you get roped into listening to a long message designed to keep you connected as long as possible. Your next phone bill will contain a shocking $2,425-per-minute charge to the 809 number, which happens to be located in the Caribbean.

Although the National Consumers League received a handful of complaints about $8-per-minute calls to Caribbean area codes a few years ago, they are now fielding far more calls from people alarmed by the e-mail. The NCL's advice? Take the time to consult an operator before calling an area code you don't recognize.

MAGNETIC PERSONALITY

You've undoubtedly heard that eel-skin wallets wipe out the magnetic strips on ATM and credit cards. That's bunk. First electric eels aren't used for making wallets. Second, dead eels (even of the electric variety) don't pack much punch. But a magnetic clasp on a wallet can disable a card, and because eel skin is thinner than cowhide, eel-skin wallets with magnetic clasps are more apt to cause this problem.

MUSKET MUTINY

GUN-CONTROL advocates reportedly persuaded former president Bill Clinton to recall the Massachusetts state quarter because it depicts a minuteman holding a musket. Don't worry: The two-bit piece is safe.

But there is some truth to the notion that there are mis-struck state quarters in circulation that are worth a lot of money. "We make 29 billion coins a year, and sometimes `error coins' escape," says U.S. Mint spokeswoman Sharon McPike. What are your odds of finding one of the escapees? About 1 in 50 million. What might a flawed quarter be worth? As much as $30,000 for the rarest of the rare.

SALVATION FOR THE POSTAL SERVICE

ANOTHER MYTH that migrated down from Canada has prompted angry constituents to call their representatives in Congress to protest a bill that would impose a 5-cent charge on every e-mail message delivered over the Internet. Don't waste your time calling (or e-mailing) Washington. No such bill exists.

DEADLY DEPOSIT

Did you hear the one about the Canadian bank customer who dropped dead of cyanide poisoning after licking a deposit envelope at an ATM? There's not a shred of proof to back this claim, says Barbara Mikkelson, an urban-legend enthusiast who, along with her husband, David, maintains the Urban Legends Reference Pages Web site (www.snopes.com). Accidental poisoning by something innocuous is an ancient storytelling motif, adds Mikkelson, that long predates the Seinfeld episode in which George's fiancee meets an envelope-licking demise.

FLIP THE SWITCH

The best way to ensure long life and happiness for your computer and monitor is to leave them on all the time, right? Wrong, although it is a good way to ensure that you pay a generous premium to your electricity provider each month.

Some computer users staunchly believe that the start-up process damages their hard drive. But disk-drive problems of that sort were resolved more than 15 years ago, says Brian Connors, vice-president of business development and quality at IBM.

JACKPOT IN A BABY-FOOD JAR

SOMETHING for nothing is the theme of many urban legends, and the Gerber baby-food settlement myth follows that formula. According to this rumor, Gerber settled a lawsuit by promising to send $500 savings bonds to parents who mailed their child's birth certificate and social security number to a P.O. box in Minneapolis. Because of the obvious identity-theft risk, postal authorities have moved aggressively to close all P.O. boxes connected with the story.

--Reporter: JOSEPHINE ROSSI