Hoaxes
We all receive e-mails warning us about viruses, scams, all kinds of perilous things.
Usually these warnings are in the form of "trust me, it happened to me" or "it happened to a friend of mine", usually also the warnings have already been forwarded a number of times so usually the original 'witness' is lost in the midst of the past senders.
The first thing most people do is pass it forward.
That is WRONG!
The first thing one should do is check for veracity. See if it is true.
Don't worry about not having the knowledge to check it yourself, most idiots who start these 'alarm chain letters' are not very original and most of them are listed hoaxes, urban legends, digital folklore.
If you pick a few keywords from the warning and google them you'll probably find that one of the existing databases already as a record on the said alarm, as an HOAX.
Two bad things come out of simply forwarding: spreading wrong information perpetuating ignorance (this should be both a Deadly Sin and a Capital Crime); wasting precious bandwidth in servers all over the net making it slower for us all.
Some of you have never thought of it this way, you simply forward stuff to prevent the dire events from happening to those you care for.
Now you know.
So if you really care enough for those people that you are willing to warn them, take a few more minutes checking if it really is worth warning.
You're intentions are good, same as the ones paving the road to hell...
Usually these warnings are in the form of "trust me, it happened to me" or "it happened to a friend of mine", usually also the warnings have already been forwarded a number of times so usually the original 'witness' is lost in the midst of the past senders.
The first thing most people do is pass it forward.
That is WRONG!
The first thing one should do is check for veracity. See if it is true.
Don't worry about not having the knowledge to check it yourself, most idiots who start these 'alarm chain letters' are not very original and most of them are listed hoaxes, urban legends, digital folklore.
If you pick a few keywords from the warning and google them you'll probably find that one of the existing databases already as a record on the said alarm, as an HOAX.
Two bad things come out of simply forwarding: spreading wrong information perpetuating ignorance (this should be both a Deadly Sin and a Capital Crime); wasting precious bandwidth in servers all over the net making it slower for us all.
Some of you have never thought of it this way, you simply forward stuff to prevent the dire events from happening to those you care for.
Now you know.
So if you really care enough for those people that you are willing to warn them, take a few more minutes checking if it really is worth warning.
You're intentions are good, same as the ones paving the road to hell...
posted by DCveR at 9:28 AM
10 Comments:
Usually, the people starting such chains are no idiots. The main reason (for no idiots and no jackasses) is to scan e-mail address list and to verify which of them are working. It's almost surety that (if the chain is successful) the chain'll get back to the initiator. With a bunch of forwarded e-mail addresses.
If you really want to forward such spam, please delete all e-mail addresses and leave only the root message. Please include all addresses in hidden copies (BCC).
Yep. If you really MUST fwd. spams and scams, delete the other people's email addresses.
Just think, if we all deleted email addresses before fowarding, then ours won't be fowarded to hundreds of strangers either.
But seriously! Why would anyone even want to pass on scams and spams to friends and families?
shyha: Welcome back. Yup, you're right, most times the guys who start all this mess have their own agenda and are not idiots.
GG: People pass those warnings out of good will, some ignorant good will. They get scared and pass the messages without even thinking, affraid the terrible things in the message will happen to their family or friends. The terrible things may be a virus that formats your disc, the guys that can read your pin across the street from the ATM using their cell phone, the seller of perfume that poisons you or any such thing.
Grrrr... Ive got another round of spamming on my blog, and few things makes me angrier; they fuckin had three porn commercials on my page's comments! What if my niese (not that the stuff I write is considered very healthy) was reading my blog, and ended up on child-abusing porn sites.... That makes me just angry....
Well, y'know, this is something worth passing on to friends and relatives, this post and the responses.
isa, isae: That is one issue about spammers I hadn't thought of. Thank you. When more reason to despise the bastards.
GG: Second time you mention mailing a post of mine, guess it was time to add the e-mail this post feature.
There's a great, quick way to check this stuff out. Go to
www.snopes.com
They track all of the hoaxes vs serious warnings we SHOULD be forwarding. Nice guys, those snopes.
Bunny Jo: Yup, great guys.
There is also
www.scambusters.org
www.hoax-slayer.com
And a lot more. But the easiest way is to google a few keywords instead of checking those dbs one by one.
Very good point. I'm big on checking forwards I get from family at snopes.com and then educating all the folks in the e-mail list. Perhaps pretentious but I figure if at least 1 person learns, the chain will eventually end.
glitzy: If one person learns it means that person won't forward the message to all the contacts in the agenda, who in turn won't forward it ad nauseum, so even if it is only one person learning it means something like thousands of messages less in the long run. Hope your cold is all gone now.
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