What do you do when someone sends you one of those forwarded spam/chain emails you know is fake?
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I'll be honest, these things bug the crap out of me! Especially the ones that tell me what to do if I "love Jesus" or "really care" or need to "warn all your friends". I used to just delete them but lately I've been looking them up on TruthOrFiction.com or Snopes.com and then hitting "Reply to All" with a message that the email is not true and a link to on of the above sites. It makes some people mad but I feel like I'm doing my little bit to correct errors... what do you all think?
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They bug me, too, but I think of the people that send them, usually friends and family members, and I don't have the heart to make a fuss, because I think these are people who embarrass easily. So, I just delete them. The sender thinks they are doing something good, I don't want to break their spirit. That one little 7 year old kid has been going strong, though, for 15 years, at least.
Thanks for your thoughts, Greg. Maybe I should be able to let them go more too. Do you draw any kind of line between the benign and the malignant? My problem mainly lies with the ones that are spreading fear, telling people that there are communists being secretly appointed to government posts so they can take over, etc. Should I just be deleting those too?
I get some very disagreeable ones, and I'm surprised that some friends and family would inflict their mean spirited political views on me. But again, I think they don't realize that there are actually people who have a different opinion than they do. I've been tempted to retaliate, but that would be way too obvious to these people, and open up a can of worms I'm not interested in creating right now. So, I just delete them. I come from a region or community that is very uniform, I think the people I was brought up around mostly share the same opinions, and I'm the odd man out. So, it is very likely these people just don't know or can't accept that not everyone thinks the same way.
I have responded to some , though. I twice CC'd everybody on the list, saying that Microsoft was not going to match your funds if you pass this email on, and also the one about the 7-year old girl dying of leukemia, I told everyone this email was already 10 years old.
If I may speak to a broader, less personal issue, I wonder if there is a statistic of how much overall bandwidth these junk emails gobble up. They don't deliver a virus, they ARE the virus.
You are a gracious man, Greg. Graciousness is not something that comes naturally to me but it is something I very much aspire to. There doesn't seem to be a lot of it going around - I'll try to add to it as often as possible.
As to the emails gobbling up bandwidth... we have an elderly family member that Bruce helped get set up with a Gmail account due to it's ease of use. We got a "tech support" request from this relative one day because their email wasn't functioning properly. Imagine our shock when the problem was that their mailbox was full... 10 gigs worth of spam - all forwarded and reforwarded. Absolutely amazing.
Jean, that guy sounds like he should win an award from Google. I can't fill up my Gmail account even if I try. That guy is definitely on some heavy mailing lists. I'm sure Bruce knows the phrase "creeping requirements." That's when you do something for the customer, and they want just a little bit more...just a little bit more...just a little bit more... First you set up a Gmail account, next thing you know, you are replacing his hard drive, upgrading the memory, giving the guy a bigger monitor, installing his anti-virus, and spending long hours on the phone with the cable or dsl service for him.
Jean, I think anything we can do to put and end to these is a good thing. Mostly, I send a polite e-mail the the person who sent me that junk telling them why I do not respond to them or pass them on. My hope is that they will think about it the next time they get one and not send it on either.
I'm sure it annoys some people who believe these are real and not just a way of getting more e-mail address to which they can send all kinds of junk mail or sell to "advertisers." Sometimes I wonder about just even opening them. Maybe I'm crazy, but it seems like after I've looked at one even if I don't do what it says, I get more spam than usual for a while. And then there are those that threaten you with dire events if you don't continue it. HOW DARE THEY. Argh.
I'm with you Jean, let's put an end to these darn things.
I never respond to anything that comes from some sort of an outside source. I never open attachments unless it's something I'm expecting from someone. I'm lucky, though, since I'm married to a web programmer, he can tell me that it's impossible for Microsoft to collect the emails of everyone you forward something to and then give money to charity. :)
Hit the delete key. That saves you time, mental horsepower. Reporting such stuff is not fruitful. Often it confirms your email address so it's sold to other spammers.
Thanks Mark. Great advice.
Good question, Jean. I think you did the right thing. What I usually do is delete it or if I decide to forward the message, erase all the email addresses and ads and just use the BCC before hitting the send button.
Oh, thank you, Nenita! That is another pet peeve of mine - people who forward me stuff with all the prior forwarding things still visible at the top! (Hmmm, this makes me sound kinda bitchy, huh?? lol)
I don't ever forward chain letters or chain email either- don't like that sort of thing-
You're on my team, Ella!
For me those things rank up there with visits to the dentists and taxes: annoying as heck but I deal with it. I used to get upset when they would fill my inbox wondering if whomever sent them had nothing better to do then fill it up. Now I respond with a thank you for thinking of me and hit the delete button. Lightning hasn't struck me yet. :)
Grace, you live up to your name! Thanks.
Funny thing is I used to receive spam mails like they forced you to open it the quickest the best lest you miss a good opportunity of earning good money (as if....) and have to respond fast, or I am the last 3 lucky selected few available to secure a position/win worth that much ($)
Likewise, drugs like Vigra or Slimming pills intro also common in my Junk Box. Even friends also send me the chain letter with the warning that I MUST forward to 10 people I know lest some not-nice things may happen blah blah blah........(we played this game during school days a lot)
You remind me of clearing my inbox Jean.
Thanks for the thoughts, Hilda. I hate a junky inbox, that's probably part of my problem...
They drive me crazy. I get quite a lot of "send this on and you will receive a gift or your most powerful wish will miraculously come true". Then they say if you don't do it you'll have BAD luck for a year. It's fear-mongering, which is my absolute worst. Whatever they're trying to promote, they're trying to weaken somebody's independence of mind. Really don't like that!
I do like your solution, though; I never thought of replying to all, but in future I'm going to.
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