The most annoying emails to read (after spam that is) are letters proclaiming a new virus is
out that will do this or that, and you must forward this message to everyone in your address
book immediately. Without a thought that this is possibly a hoax, the person blindly follows
the instructions, honestly believing they will be helping their friends! Though they have
good intentions, they are actually joining the many other people who also received the message,
clogging up the internet with thousands of useless letters, and thus slowing down the system
for everyone, and actually contributing to the propagation of the hoax! The remarkable thing
about it is how long these hoaxes survive! I was most concerned about the 2 hoaxes below, both
of which seemed quite legitimate. After visiting this site, I hope you will have a clearer
view of the capabilities of some people who get pleasure from clogging up the internet with
outdated propaganda! Please think twice before you react to things you get in your email -
IOW, treat them all with a grain of salt! All you have to do is search for the matter of
interest - in this case I used "petition 2493" as a phrase, and one of the sites that came up
is actually from the FCC!
http://www.fcc.gov/mb/enf/forms/rm-2493.html
In case you have been bugged in the past and were skeptical about a so-called bill 602P now in congress, regarding the placement of a surcharge on all e-mails by the U.S. Post Office, this website should put everyone at peace!
http://www.usps.com/news/2002/press/emailrumor.htm
Please pass this site on to all your friends, so they stop forwarding hoax messages!
Below are my favorite hoax websites:
McAfee.com - Virus Information Library - Virus Hoaxes
Other websites to disclaim hoaxes!
Internet Viruses, Virus Hoaxes & Urban Legends
CIAC Hoax Busters
Real Viruses and Worms (and what to do if you've been infected)
Yahoo! Society and Culture:Mythology and Folklore:Urban Legends
The following is some good advice, which I would urge you to share with your friends - hope this helps everyone!
EMAIL FACTS OF LIFE by Donald Watrous http://www.cs.rutgers.edu/~watrous/
1. Big companies don't do business via chain letter. Bill Gates is not giving you $1000, and Disney is not giving you a free vacation. There is no baby food company issuing class-action checks. You can relax; there is no need to pass it on "just in case it's true". Furthermore, just because someone said in the message, four generations back, that "we checked it out and it's legit", does not actually make it true.
2. There is no kidney theft ring in New Orleans. No one is waking up in a bathtub full of ice, even if a friend of a friend swears it happened to their cousin. If you are hellbent on believing the kidney-theft ring stories, please see: http://urbanlegends.about.com/culture/urbanlegends/library/weekly/aa062997.htm And I quote: "The National Kidney Foundation has repeatedly issued requests for actual victims of organ thieves to come forward and tell their stories. None have." That's "none" as in "zero". Not even your friend's cousin.
3. Neiman Marcus doesn't really sell a $200 cookie recipe. And even if they do, we all have it. And even if you don't, you can get a copy at: http://www.bl.net/forwards/cookie.html Then, if you make the recipe, decide the cookies are that awesome, feel free to pass the recipe on.
4. We all know all 500 ways to drive your roommates crazy, irritate co-workers and creep out people on an elevator. We also know exactly how many engineers, college students, Usenet posters and people from each and every world ethnicity it takes to change a lightbulb
5. Even if the latest NASA rocket disaster(s) DID contain plutonium that went to particulate over the eastern seaboard, do you REALLY think this information would reach the public via an AOL chain-letter?
6. There is no "Good Times" virus. In fact, you should never, ever, ever forward any email containing any virus warning unless you first confirm it at an actual site of an actual company that actually deals with virii. Try: http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/hoax.html . And even then, don't forward it. We don't care.
7. If your CC: list is regularly longer than the actual content of your message, you're probably going to Hell.
8. If you're using Outlook, IE, or Netscape to write email, turn off the "HTML encoding." Those of us on Unix shells can't read it, and don't care enough to save the attachment and then view it with a web browser, since you're probably forwarding us a copy of the Neiman Marcus Cookie Recipe anyway. (Actually, I prefer using HTML for my email.)
9. If you still absolutely MUST forward that 10th-generation message from a friend, at least have the decency to trim the eight miles of headers showing everyone else who's received it over the last 6 months. It sure wouldn't hurt to get rid of all the ">" that begin each line. Besides, if it has gone around that many times - I've probably already seen it.
10. Craig Shergold in England is not dying of cancer or anything else at this time and would like everyone to stop sending him their business cards. He apparently is also no longer a "little boy" either.
Enjoying the Internet would be a lot easier if everyone heeded Don's advice!
Thanks for visiting Barkley's Viruses, Hoaxes, and Urband Legends. If you have any problems with these URL's, or have any comments or suggestions, please E-Mail me at: masek@barkley.clara.co.uk
