If you’ve been on the Internet for any length of time, you’ve received, and possibly sent, chain mail that purports to describe an incident that really happened. Some of these are simply amusing, such as the supposed ‘user services’ complaints. Others are more serious, because they either call for policy changes based on what they saw, dampen true activism by making the claim that you can effect policy change simply by forwarding the e-mail on, or harm a third party’s reputation.
It is difficult to keep up with these chain mail spams because there are so many of them. However, if you ever feel that you have received one that is important enough to forward to your own friends, you absolutely must verify it first if you don’t wish to look like a fool later on. So many of them are either false or completely false.
Some of them are silly. Bill Gates isn’t going to give me money for forwarding e-mail, and not just because I throw those spam mailings in the trash. You don’t need to look that one up, because a moment’s reflection will tell you that it ain’t gonna happen. (If you decide to write the sender back and tell them that it’s false, however, you should uncover third-party verification first.)
I’m going to divide this kind of spam into two categories: virus myths and urban legends. There are different places to go to verify or debunk each type.
- Computer Virus Myths
- 1. http://www.dhs.gov/xcitizens/general_1165337828628.shtm
- Urban Legends
- Urban legends go beyond computers into everyday life. If you believe in urban legends you can be killed for warning other motorists that their headlights are off3, wake up in a foreign hotel with one kidney missing4, or grow cockroaches in your cheeks5. You can save Big Bird6, or convince the Taliban to end repression against women7, simply by forwarding an e-mail message.
