I used to get a ton of forwarded email from family and friends. Being relatively new to the online world, I believed many of the forwards with 'warnings' about politicians, scams, and rapist tactics. I happily forwarded them on, feeling proud of myself for playing a part in helping others to be safe and make wise choices.
OY!
It was only after someone not-so-nicely pointed out to me that I had 'yet again' forwarded on claptrap which was completely untrue and had been circulating around the internet for many years, in many forms, that I changed my email forward policy.
First, I no longer want forwarded email. After spending about a year of my time checking every blasted piece of 'warning' and other 'true story' email at sites such as Snopes and Truth or Fiction, and discovering that at least 90% of it was completely false or partially false; I told everyone around me to take me off their junk mail list.
Second, in those rare instances I do get 'true story' and 'warning' email, I check it out and then promptly forward on the results to the sender along with the fact that most of these email forwards are HOAXES and I suggest they check them out at online email hoax sites before forwarding them on.
At the very least, that cuts down the number of these time-wasting emails which fill my multiple inboxes.
A few other good hoax busting sites are:
Urban Legends
Symantec
Hoax Slayer
You can go to any of those sites, or just do an online 'search' using a keyword or two from the email and the word 'hoax'. If any of those sites have info on it (and you chose good keywords) you should get a great set of results to check out.
I appreciate being thought of and I appreciate being filled in on TRUTH. I just simply don't have the time to sift through and check out dozens of hoax emails daily. So, the point of this post, and my public service announcement for the day (or for NOW) is as follows:
PLEASE FORWARD RESPONSIBLY. THANK YOU.
Like what I wrote and want to buy me a cherry coke?
No comments:
Post a Comment