Why people send chain e-letters to you and ask you to forward it to everyone you know? And sometimes they ask that you also send it back to them for some reason?
Usually they have a bazaar threat, warning, promise of good fortune, monetary reward or some irresistible plea for assistance (spiritual or physical). Without exception, every single one of these messages I have seen in the last 25 years has been fraudulent. How can someone asking for prayers be fraudulent? You ask. It is the fact that they want you to send it out to everyone in your address-book that cakes it. Is every one in your address book a prayer warrior? Eventually your message will fall into a mail box of the person who originated it. And inside that message will be a legitimate e-mail address for everyone you know. This has been a favorite ploy used by people to sell lists of addresses to spammers since email first started. It pre-existed the internet. The original meaning of email spam, was to send so many messages to someone (2 or 3 thousand big numbers back then), that it would freeze the then speedy 1200 baud modem every time they tried to down-load email. Today, in the cable modem, highspeed access arena, that number is laughable, it means any unsolicited message you receive that annoys you. And does not provide a legitimate way to opt-out of the loop. But, my friend would never do that to me. You say. Either you are right, they didn't send it, someone who has a bounce server sent it with your friends name as the sender. Or your friend may have a mass mailer virus and doesn't know about it. Or maybe they aren't really as friendly as you think.
If you get a message that tells you Bill Gates, or anyone else, will pay you for every time you send out an email. Think about it! Neither Microsoft, the CIA, NSA nor the FBI can track every email flying through cyber-space. Period! If you come up with a way, I'll help you patent it. Just tell me first.
So now what do you do if you get one of these? What would you do if someone told you to delete the contents of your hard drive? (If you answered "Do it." I can't help you.)
If you are at home. Laugh to yourself and delete it. At work, Report it to your security team. They want to hear about the latest trends going around. It helps them defend your network.
And in answer to some e-mails I have received: No I will not teach you how to hack...
11 comments:
This is a great post! Too often I have these show up almost daily in my email. Oh sure they seriously try to guilt you into sending it along like carrying the flag around the world for our men in service, helping the breast cancer lady continue to walk.
I guess I don't have a conscience cause I delete them all. No one is gaining access to the email addresses I have.
Love and Hugs ~ Kat
Hats off and Bravo Zulu to KAT.
Right back at cha, sister...
Your awesome!!
Amen! haha
I always delete these types of emails too. Waste of my time! But I didn't know it was a ploy too. Valuable information, as always!
:-)
Vous êtes un homme de sagesse, et ses nombreux talents.
Good to know. I don't have much patience with any sort of spam even if it comes from people I know who think they're doing a good thing so it all gets deleted.
I see these often,,,,at least when I get around to checking my emails. I never realized they were a trick, but always thought of them as time wasters and or junk and deleted them. Have never forwarded anything to everyone in my address back----and I'm a Newbie!!!
Thanks for sharing this helpful information, I appreciate you.
Surely you must know where I stand on this issue. :) And yes I knew it was a ploy.
It takes a lot of gumption to say God won't answer your prayer unless you forward an email to everyone you know. I have control issues, I hate when people try to manipulate or force me into anything. It makes me do exactly what they said don't do. Not that I'm rebellious mind you.
Every once in a while I really like the message in the email and want to send it to a few people that I know would appreciate it. On those occasions I delete all previous email addresses and the manipulating portion of the email.
<°)}}}><
And on a rare occasion I send the email as an attachment. ;)
If the abbreviation FW: is in the subject matter of any email - I delete it. I don't do chains, well, not email chain letters.
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