LazyTruth: The new weapon to fight spam!

LONDON: Are you fed up with crap messages flooding your inbox? Here's some good news: Researchers claim to have developed a new software to address the problem -- an automatic fact-checker built into your email.

A team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Laboratory has come up with the software called LazyTruth, the 'New Scientist' reported.

"We get a lot of crap in our inboxes," Matt Stempeck, who led the team, was quoted as saying.

Wild rumours -- such as the myth that Barack Obama is a Muslim -- do the rounds for years, even though they have been debunked. The researchers say that LazyTruth will combat this by delivering kernels of truth right to your inbox.

When it recognises the unique phrases that turn up in viral emails it displays a rebuttal sourced from fact-checking websites such as Snopes.com and FactCheck.org, according to the researchers.

The software's creators plan to experiment with different configurations to find the most effective.

For example, including a link to another article might engage more people. Or it might be better to embed one succinct passage that debunks the entire email. The team will gauge effectiveness based on how many LazyTruth users send responses to fact-challenged emailers.