From childhood pranks to email scams, pretty much all of us have, at some point in our lives, fallen foul of a hoax. Perhaps we were once sent to the hardware shop for a 'long weight', or put on edge by warnings of the world's most destructive computer virus (ever!), or tempted to disclose personal details on receipt of a faraway businessman's 'proposition' regarding his $8 billion dollar oil fortune (nice of him to single you out, wasn't it?).

With April Fools Day just around the corner, it's time for susceptible persons to be on their guard - not always easy when media bastions such as respectable old Auntie Beeb have been deliberately deluding the public on this day since the 1950s. While obtaining money through intimidation or deception is clearly wrong, there can however be a fine line between causing a little kerfuffle and triggering a national panic. Many hoaxes are taken very seriously indeed; the UK government, for example, has recently taken the unprecedented step of contacting every foreign embassy to rebuff false claims that teaching of the Holocaust is to be removed from the UK school curriculum.

The basic rules are as follows: if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is; and if it sounds utterly implausible, it probably is too. However, with hoaxes becoming ever more elaborate and, through the Internet, ever more widely propagated, it's only a matter of time before even the most hardened cynics among us become a cropper.

Did you head out to Burger King to scoff a Left-Handed Whopper? Or do you scoff at the thought of being taken for a ride by a ruse? We’d love to hear from you!

• When was the last time you were caught out by a hoax? What happened?

• Are you a bit of a practical joker? What hoaxes have you played on others?

• What is the funniest hoax you can recall?

• What is the least funniest hoax you can recall?

• Have you ever turned the tables on the hoaxer, like this persistant fellow?