I have a new crusade

[brainofck]

OK.

I have done a bad thing, hoping to serve a greater good.

I created a spam e-mail and forwarded it to everybody I know.

*hangs head in shame*

But recently, people have been driving me CRAZY.

My father-in-law forwarded me that e-mail about how Bill Gates is paying people who foward his e-mail enough times! Jeez! That freakin' think is OLDER THAN THE INTERNET! How could somebody still fall for it?! Plus recently I was warned by a very intelligent woman about how I was at risk from assault by perfume sales people in parking lots. *bangs head*

I have whined about this before.

Well, now I have done something.

If you want to join the crusade, and would consider helping me, the text of my e-mail is below. Wanna start your own spam web?

An Open Letter to the Electronic Community:

I cannot get over how many smart people perpetrate e-mail scams. Rule of thumb. If it comes into your e-mail box, it's a lie. Don't be a sucker.

Think of the outrageous things you would NEVER have known about if you hadn't "learned" about it in e-mail. For instance, did you know that someone is trying to spread AIDS by attaching used syringes to gas pumps? And there are people in parking lots who pretend to sell you perfume but actually drug you and take your money? Not to mention all the computer virus threats you have never heard of.

So here's my humble suggestion. Let's start a new chain e-mail about how not to fall for this cr**.

If you get a forwarded e-mail, start by assuming it's a lie. If you are truly concerned that it might be real and you need to notify your loved ones and friends, go to a search engine like Webcrawler and type in the key words in your message. The best thing to do is take a distinctive line of the e-mail and paste it into the search engine. "Bill Gates is Sharing His Fortune!" pulled up a full page of hits, all debunking the e-mail. It was very easy to find information debunking the syringe story and the perfume attackers story, too.

Be very suspicious of any e-mail claiming it can DO something, like get you some money or a coupon or a gift if you forward it to enough people. E-mail is pretty inert. It spreads viruses by carrying infected attachments and documents containing macros. But that's about it. E-mail doesn't have special abilities to log back into its originating source. If you really want to forward it because it sounds neat, research it first.

On the topic of virus warnings, don't forget the Symantec Hoax page: http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/hoax.html. If you get an e-mail warning you about a new virus, don't forward it to all your friends til you check the hoax page. Please. They are almost all hoaxes. I have never gotten an authentic one. (Of course, if you follow my advice below, you'll do your own web search on Symantec Hoax page and find it yourself.)

If you get an e-mail from a business, asking for account or other personal information, never answer the e-mail or click any links or reveal any information. Links often take you to cleverly designed pages that look exactly like the legitimate pages. Except when you read the address, the address is .de, not .com. Contact the business independently from the e-mail (not via information provided in the e-mail.) Check your actual account. Go to the corporate webpage. Confirm the request made in the e-mail through legit sources.

If you get an attachment. Don't open it. Ever. Ever. Ever. No tech support person will violate this rule. If you think it might be legit, call first. To a number independent of any info in the e-mail. Check the hoax page.

If you get an e-mail telling you to do something to your computer, like delete "harmful" files, don't do it. Call an independent source and confirm that you need to follow the instructions. Check the hoax page.

Consider forwarding this e-mail to people you know. Or hold on to it and forward it to people who obviousy don't follow these rules. Maybe we can spread the word and let people know not to believe all the stuff they get relayed through to them from strangers.

With kind regards,
CK


To all of you who actually *received* this e-mail from me, my apologies, and of course there is no obligation to forward. You were just my only available victims.

Comments

[amise.livejournal.com]

Spam from friends was drastically reduced when I introduced one of my best friends, a person of normally high intelligence, to www.snopes.com.

The third time I responded to his spam with "according to Snopes, it's a hoax. Read about it here: *insert addy*," he stopped sending those stupid things to me.