First let me say that I enjoy a lot of what is forwarded to me. There are some outrageously marvelous stupidities that get sent all over the world and I do get a kick out of seeing how many people believe the stuff. Most of the people who hit the "forward" button on their email window know nothing of email etiquette, so I've included some here. In the meantime, if you care to check the validity of the stuff you send, check out http://www.snopes.com. Ms. Mikkelson has done us a great service by checking into the most of the hoaxes and Urban Legends which are passed from computer to computer via ignorant forwarders. As a further slap in the face, she has even reminded us that before email, the stuff used to come via our fax machines. So let's take a look at what we've got.
First and foremost - EMAIL ETIQUETTE
I cringe every time I get an email that has a visible list of people's addresses at the top. I know that about half of the people on that list are going to add me to their address books and begin sending more of the forwards. Here are some ways to keep your friends from being subjected to spam by friends of friends and to avoid being caught up in "forward mania".
Next we have VIRUS warnings and hoaxesThe most important rule is don't believe anything you read. All my life I have heard the tale of the person who falls into an underwater nest of water moccasins and is bitten repeatedly and dies. Yet no one has ever been able to come up with proof of the story - no police report, no death certificate, no eyewitness. I have (at different times) heard that the incident happened at the lake between Omega Bay and Bayou Vista, Texas; Lake Striker, Texas; Lake Murval, Texas; or the San Jacinto River, Texas. However, every time I bring up this "Urban Legend", someone swears that they heard it about their best friend's uncle's skiing buddy or some other equally indistinct person. I'm sure I'll get more of the same every time someone accesses this page. Use your software's BCC (blind carbon copy) function instead of the TO function. If you look at the top of mass forwards I send out, you will only see my address listed. I send the email TO myself and BCC it to everyone else. There is absolutely no difference in the use of the function, the only difference is the result. Haven't you ever wondered why you are getting email that is addressed to ginagale? I estimate that I am now on the mass mail lists of over 500 people since I receive, on average, about 85 emails a day. I would venture to say that five of those are advertisements from someone wanting to tell me how to make money on the internet, about five are personal notes from someone I know, about fifteen are forwards from friends or family, and the remaining sixty are forwards from people I don't know. They got my address from my friends who list me in the TO box of their email forwards. When you forward an email, erase the email routing information which is included in the forward. I delete lots of email every day because I can't find the story, joke, or other funny buried in all the routing info. Routing info is usually right under the address section of the email and looks like this: From: Judy Poole <[email protected]> To: Andrews, Sylvia <[email protected]>; Brawner, Sandy <[email protected]>; Firmin, Joan & Worley <[email protected]>;Hamm, Don [email protected]>; Gruner, Carl <[email protected]>; IQG JANICE VAUGHAN <[email protected]>; IQG Edith Freeman <[email protected]>; IQG Carol Cook <[email protected]>; IQG LESLIE ROSE <[email protected]>; IQG Joyce Ledbetter <[email protected]>; IQG LINDA LOU KELLER <[email protected]>; IQG SHARON CASEY <[email protected]>; Poole Family <[email protected]>; Rose, Leslie <[email protected]>; Tammy Lynn <[email protected]> (don't worry, I changed each email address so it can't be used). NEVER NEVER give someone the address for someone else without making sure it is okay. I recently broke this rule when setting up an address book for a cousin who is a newbie. I put all the relatives' addresses into her book without checking and I got called down for it. I assumed that family members would not mind - well, some of them do.
Have you ever gotten an email saying:
This
is a warning about a new virus - this is NOT a hoax! If you get an email
with a subject line that reads "Uncle Joe's Fish Tale", DON'T open it.
It will completely erase your hard drive. Worse, it will erase the hard
drives of all your friends' computers too by automatically emailing itself
to everyone on your list!
I haven't completely figured this one out unless someone is mad at Uncle Joe. Most viruses are in the form of email attachments. Many email programs offer the option of automatically opening attachments. Don't use this function. You should always choose to open the attachment yourself. On the other hand, there is a new virus out called VBS/Bubbleboy which comes embedded in the body of the email. Once the email is opened, the virus sends an email message to everyone in your MS Outlook address book. If you don't use Outlook, it can't email itself. It doesn't actually DO anything except email itself to your friends and change the owner name and company of your computer.
I had an experience a short time back. A trusted friend sent an email with an attachment. She is a great source of good jokes and funnies, and I get email from her almost daily. Thankfully, I was too busy to open the attachment at the moment. I saved the email and went on about my business. A few days later, I spoke to this friend in person and she told me that her computer was "all messed up". That night as I checked my email, I deleted hers without opening the attachment. I was worried that it might be the cause of her computer problems.
There are more viruses out there than there are people on the Internet (maybe... I wouldn't want to start another Urban Legend). But there are more hoaxes than there are viruses. It's great that people think they should be their brothers' keepers, but sending out virus hoaxes doesn't help anyone. In case of a known virus attack, major news reports will give you the details as will several sites on the Internet. McAfee is probably the best place to find information about real viruses - check their virus alerts.
Other hoaxes are the incessant rumors that ICQ or AOL's Instant Messaging is going to start charging for their services. I have also received ICQ hoaxes that say I should forward a message to everyone on my list or my account will be deactivated. Come on, people! Who is going to count all my ICQ messages? Who knows - besides me - what messages I forward? There is absolutely no way for Mirabilis to track the 6 million plus users they have in their system. It would take every penny they have just to pay a minimum wage salary to enough people to monitor all the messages that pass through their servers.
The same is true of the email tracking software that supposedly enables the dying child to get thousands of dollars for medical care if we forward an email. There is no dying child. Further, there is no such software. I was told that MS worked the basic parts of this new tracker into my browser before they finished the tracker. I don't use Microsoft Mail or Internet Explorer, so Microsoft can't possibly track my email. My email has absolutely nothing to do with Microsoft or its browser. WHY would anyone WANT to track a stranger's email? 99% of all email is just a few lines between friends or family members.
I have gotten very good at spotting hoaxes. I generally delete the message before I even finish the first sentence. I NEVER pass it on. So keep the jokes coming, but leave the Urban Legends and Hoaxes elsewhere. They bug me.
