Author Topic: Chain letters? Advice from Snopes (Read 8701 times)

Jerry · « **on:** November 14, 2008, 09:43:25 PM »

Advice from Snopes.

1) Any time you see an E-Mail that says forward this on to '10' of your friends, sign this petition, or you'll get bad luck, or whatever, it has either an E-Mail tracker program attached that tracks the cookies and E-Mails of those folks you forward. The host sender is getting a copy each time it gets forwarded and then is able to get lists of 'active' E-Mails to use in SPAM E-Mails, or sell to others that do.

2) Almost all E-Mails that ask you to add your name and forward on to others are similar to that mass letter years ago that asked people to send business cards to the little kid in Florida who wanted to break the Guinness Book of Records for the most cards. All it was, and all any of this type of E-Mail is, is a way to get names and 'cookie' tracking information for telemarketers and sp ammers - - to validate active E-Mail accounts for their own purposes.

You can do your friends and family members a GREAT favor by sending this information to them; you will be providing a service to your friends, and will be rewarded by not getting thousands of Spam E-Mails in the future!

If you have been sending out (FORWARDING) the above kinds of E-Mail, now you know why you get so mu ch SPAM!

Do yourself a favor and STOP adding your name(s) to those type listings regardless how inviting they might sound!

You think you are supporting a GREAT cause, but you are NOT in the long run. Instead you will be getting tons of junk mail later in life!

Also: E-Mail petitions are NOT acceptable to Congress or any other organization. To be acceptable, petitions must have a signed signature and full address of the person signing the petition.

miguynmkoi · « **Reply #1 on:** November 14, 2008, 11:07:26 PM »

Thank you, Jerry, for validating me.

Absolutely hate receiving chain mail/emails...should have burned in hell long time ago for breaking the chain. STILL HERE!

ladybug · « **Reply #2 on:** November 15, 2008, 03:05:52 AM »

i thought i was the only one that was going to die, or burn in hell for breaking every chain letter i have ever received. i hate them, hate them, hate them. i delete them immediately. i have never understood how people can be so gullible.
ladybug

Esther · « **Reply #3 on:** November 15, 2008, 05:13:43 AM »

I don't know if you consider these chain letters but the ones that are sending love and prayers and then ask you to forward them don't bother me. I just delete them. But when they say, AND SEND A COPY BACK TO ME. Those bug me because I feel bad not sending the love and prayers back to the person who sent them to me. LOL. But I delete anyway.

Oh and if I do respond to those types, I delete everybody else's info before sending.

Mikey · « **Reply #4 on:** November 15, 2008, 10:28:16 AM »

Esther: LOL... Those e-mails that say if you love the person you will reply back to them I call "Guilt Trip" e-mails. I delete them without any feelings of guilt

I figure if the sender really loved me they wouldn't send me on a Guilt Trip.....

Our church has a ministry called "Breaking the Chains". This ministry is to help people with addictions who are in bondage to drugs, food, pornography etc. Maybe they should include another category for people addicted to forwarding "Chain Letters".....

Esther · « **Reply #5 on:** November 15, 2008, 12:14:44 PM »

Good Mikey.

LeeAnne151 · « **Reply #6 on:** November 19, 2008, 12:59:02 PM »

I delete them all too. They drive me crazy. I have friends and family who never write anything but send stupid email forwards and chain letters constantly. Some almost daily. I'd be happy to have conversations with them but all the junk is so annoying and they do send my email address and everyone else's all over the web.

mascot · « **Reply #7 on:** November 20, 2008, 06:53:30 AM »

I agree with you, Mikey, those chain letters are annoying. I feel that if the person really loved me they would CALL ME or VISIT ME...not send me an email that happens to be IDENTICAL to the one they are sending to umteen other people they claim they love!

As for Snopes...I check them regularly. At the top of the page they have menu items and one is "What's New". That will give you all the latest info.

The one email I get sometimes that is really annoying is when someone inludes a reference to Snopes yet they never bother to read the page to find out that it's a hoax, or that it's not true. They just take the word of the person who sent it to them claiming Snopes said it was true...and they never bothered to check either.

One time I replied (to all) saying: "if you had bothered to read the Snopes article you could have avoided sending this email to 85 other people and clogging up our email system". That person doesn't like me anymore.

Mikey · « **Reply #8 on:** November 20, 2008, 08:49:41 AM »

Quote

One time I replied (to all) saying: "if you had bothered to read the Snopes article you could have avoided sending this email to 85 other people and clogging up our email system". That person doesn't like me anymore.

LOL Actually that is a pretty good way of getting your e-mail address off of an annoying friend's list... When my fetching bride gets a bogus e-mail where the sender was too lazy to verify it on "Snopes" or "Truth or Fiction" she does a "Reply All" stating the information is FALSE and she then links to Snopes. The offender is so embarrassed they will often apologize or at least take the fetching one off their list so as not to be embarrassed again.....

Jerry · « **Reply #9 on:** November 20, 2008, 09:23:40 AM »

Michael, I feel that way about annual Christmas letters. Yes, I have had some that are very nice, but I also get 'Brag letters" They get rather obnxious. Like you said, if she loved me she would write to me. Yes, I do to her.
Her 5 sons are all world acheivers and are close to Sainthood.

Both my kids are bigger successes in this life. She would know this if she ever asked.

LeeAnne151 · « **Reply #10 on:** November 20, 2008, 10:43:28 AM »

I have also "Replied All" with information that it is false and giving links to Snopes.

I have had some people email me and harass me about it.

I've done it several times to the same person but she just keeps on sending out the crap. I really like her but I'm so sick of her emails. She sends a lot of religious and political ones too, that aren't my views and she knows it but keeps on sending them. We worked together for years but I'm getting close to blocking her from emailing me.

My own stepmother bombards my inbox with political and religious materials. She knows my views but doesn't care. I find it hurtful. DH doesn't want to go to Thanksgiving with my famaily this year because he is afraid she is going to rant on and on about Obama winning.

I did read someone who responded to political or religious emails by telling the person he was going to donate to the opposite party/religion in their name every time he received a forward from them.

mascot · « **Reply #11 on:** November 20, 2008, 11:19:56 AM »

Quote from: LeeAnne151 on November 20, 2008, 10:43:28 AM

DH doesn't want to go to Thanksgiving with my famaily this year because he is afraid she is going to rant on and on about Obama winning.

Just have him tell her that Obama didn't win - McCain lost.

LeeAnne151 · « **Reply #12 on:** November 21, 2008, 02:19:59 PM »

It is difficult. It upsets my father when we don't get along. She is in your face with her beliefs but won't listed to anyone else's point of view. She'll actually start raising her voice until she is yelling to drown you out. She can't defend her beliefs either. She is going with whatever Rush Limbaugh says. She became born again after surviving cancer but she is no Christian. She hates everyone who isn't just like her. She hates people of color, gays, Jewish people, muslims, Baptists etc. She was fairly bearable during the last eight years because "her" guy was in office. Although she rubbed it in for the first couple after every election. She starts all these conversations too. No one else brings the subject up.

She told me I was a liar the other day when I answered "no" we were not better off financially now than eight years ago.

Esther · « **Reply #13 on:** November 21, 2008, 02:37:02 PM »

Hey, don't be so hard on those of us who had no idea there was any such thing as Snopes.

The first time I got a scare email, about a virus, the first thing I thought to do was to warn my friends and relatives about it. I thought I was helping. Then someone gently told me that they had verified it on Snopes and sent me the link. So I quickly composed an appologetic email letting them know I was wrong and included the link.

mascot · « **Reply #14 on:** November 21, 2008, 02:38:53 PM »

Politics, I think, is one of the dumbest things to use for conversation. I had a friend who voted every year, while I choose not to. One day I griped about something...who knows what it was...but he told me that I had no right to complain because I don't vote. I told him I have EVERY right to complain because I'm a tax-paying citizen of this country. He went on and told me that if I wanted to see changes I needed to vote and quit being lazy.

I asked him if the person he voted for won the last election, he said 'no'. I asked if he was happy with everything that's been going on, he said 'no'. I asked if he really thought that his candidate lost by one vote (mine), he said 'no'.

So I asked him, 'voting got you nowhere, did it?' and he didn't say another word....he just growled.

mascot · « **Reply #15 on:** November 21, 2008, 02:42:43 PM »

Quote from: Esther on November 21, 2008, 02:37:02 PM

Hey, don't be so hard on those of us who had no idea there was any such thing as Snopes. The first time I got a scare email, about a virus, the first thing I thought to do was to warn my friends and relatives about it. I thought I was helping. Then someone gently told me that they had verified it on Snopes and sent me the link. So I quickly composed an appologetic email letting them know I was wrong and included the link.

Naiveté is one thing, Esther, but many of these so-called warnings have the link right in the email, and had the originator bothered to check it out they would have realized that it was a hoax to begin with. Then the dozens who received it never bothered to check it out either (despite the message "check it out on Snopes") and it just compounds!

greenthumbnails · « **Reply #16 on:** November 27, 2008, 06:45:52 AM »

Okay...I am very confused here. What is SNOPES? I do not understand what we are checking out on snopes. Is that a website for something or a person? I get the chain mail letters too from one friend in particular who is on someone else's list. Then I was getting chain mail from someone on that list that was sending to her. I don't even know that person...must be the send to all function or something.

Oh, and I really hate the SEND BACK TO ME mails too. I do get the guilt trip though.

Mostly, I am concerned about getting a virus if I open it and that my friend may be sending it unwittingly.

Mikey · « **Reply #17 on:** November 27, 2008, 08:22:58 AM »

Snopes checks out urban legends, rumors etc. that are floating around on the Internet : http://www.snopes.com/

Another site that does something similar is Truth or Fiction: http://www.truthorfiction.com/

Thus you can check the veracity of something forwarded to you before blindly forwarding it on to someone else.

Jerry · « **Reply #18 on:** November 27, 2008, 10:19:26 PM »

I have forwarded stuff only to find out it was untrue. Very awkward.
Mike's links are to be saved.

Julles · « **Reply #19 on:** November 30, 2008, 05:41:13 AM »

"I did read someone who responded to political or religious emails by telling the person he was going to donate to the opposite party/religion in their name every time he received a forward from them. "

This is a GREAT idea! Will come in very handy for some of the cr*p my parents and extended family keep sending me.

Jerry, I have gotten petitions from legetimate groups, such as the NOW, gay rights, environmental, etc. Are you saying that all the on-line petitions I have signed are actually bogus and are never seen by a congressman? It always seemed strange to me, to send a "signature" via e-mail, but some of the petitions originated from a bonafied organization. Please explain.

I LOVE holiday letters! Not the "brag" letters, but the ones that keep you up to date with people whom you don't see often. To me, it's an easy and inexpensive way to keep up with people you wouldn't normally phone or e-mail... you know, the owner of the picture frame store with whom I'm friendly, cousin who lives in another state, etc. It's also a way to add a personal connection when there would otherwise be none.... I've deepened business relationships by sending them one of my holiday letters.

I just spent two full days addressing, stamping, etc., 260 Christmas cards, and I included a "summary of the Julles's 2008" in most of them. People actually LIKE reading MY letter, and say they look forward to it each year. It's not a brag letter - I lead an interesting life, or at least, interesting things happen to me, and I like to share with other people:

-Hamster got tangled in wire had had to have his leg amputated.
-Builder next door comes into my yard and breaks things, then tears down my fence, won't pay for it, I sue him, 2 1/2 years later it finally settles.
-I was one of the first people in the country who voted for the Democratic slate but had the machine switch my vote to McCain/Palin.
-Volunteering to clean up an abandoned cemetery filled with freed slaves.
-Working to get sanitation and basic needs for people in the Houston City Jail.

Jerry · « **Reply #20 on:** November 30, 2008, 09:15:42 AM »

No Julles. I'm not saying anything except check it out. Snopes and the other sites have good reputations. Make your own decision.
I hate brag letters too and my attempts to have a cousin not send them are futile.
I made up a fake one and it was very obnoxious. My wife was appalled and asked me PLEASE, don't send. I didn't.

Esther · « **Reply #21 on:** November 30, 2008, 10:02:55 AM »

Jerry, that fake news letter would have been funny to read I bet. Those who know you would have gotten a kick out of it.

Jerry · « **Reply #22 on:** November 30, 2008, 03:58:05 PM »

Esther I laughed while doing it. I had things like "Debbie' got a new scratching post from Santa!
And more in the same vein.

Julles · « **Reply #23 on:** December 01, 2008, 03:44:32 PM »

I come from a family full of preachers, missionaries, and Sunday-school teachers. When they send holiday letters, they, even the 20-somethings, tend to start off with something like, "Blessed art we, for He hast commeth into our midst wherein we shall liveth forevermoreth."

Mine start out more like, "Wishing You Happy Holidays!"

Roark · « **Reply #24 on:** December 02, 2008, 05:36:46 AM »

I had a friend one year who read me the riot act for putting "Happy Holidays" at the top of a seasonal letter. I got the hyper-rabid double-barrel rant about what the holiday **really** meant and how it was being demeaned by us Children Of A Lesser God, etc. Even my religious friends recoiled at her response. I just laughed, and plotted a bit of revenge.

The next year I penned my usual end-of-year "howdy-do!" letter with the same greeting as always to all my other friends... but cooked-up one special for her.

It started-out with "Nuke the unborn gay whales for satan" and went-on from there.

FWIW, in the first 7 words, I managed to hit her top five hot-buttons.

You can NOT imagine the howling and nashing of teeth that letter produced -- first, when it was recieved... and then once again when she figured-out she'd been "had".

Roark

Esther · « **Reply #25 on:** December 02, 2008, 08:43:00 AM »

Sometimes people take themselves too seriously. And some of us have the misguided thought that we have a lot more influence and power than what really exists.

Julles · « **Reply #26 on:** December 02, 2008, 08:45:25 AM »

That's pretty funny, Roark.

But, you know, your friend was off-base on more than one count. Even religious people use "Happy Holidays" these days, because that term includes religious beliefs of any group. Christians, Muslims, Jews, Pagans, and others all have major celebrations at this time of year.

I have an athiest friend who insists on calling it "The Midwinter Festival." I'm athiest, too, but I find "Christmas" much simpler to say. Besides, it's gotten so commercialized that to me, the term simply refers to the entire end-of-year holiday season.

Controversial matter coming up... Read at your own risk:

Anyway, this friend of mine was telling us that Christ was actually born during the spring or summer. Back in the way old days, Pagans and other non-Christians were having fun celebrating the Winter Solstice and other events that fell at the end of the year. The Christians couldn't get any of these folk switched over to their religion to celebrate Christ's birth in the summer, nor could they get them to stop partying heartily at the end of the year. So the Christians decided to tag along with all the end-of-year merriment, and simply "moved" Jesus's birthday celebration to December 25, smack in the middle of all the holiday partying.

EagleEye · « **Reply #27 on:** December 02, 2008, 09:19:51 AM »

Anyway, this friend of mine was telling us

I love these experts

Hey Jules, you shoulda put that one on joke of the day

Eye

mascot · « **Reply #28 on:** December 02, 2008, 11:18:01 AM »

one of my favorite Christian jokes:

Jesus came upon a town center and saw that the town people had gathered and were hollering and rioting. When he finally made his way to the center he saw that there was a woman who had stones cast upon her. Questioning everyone, Jesus asked why they were all casting stones at her, and the reply was that she was a sinner...that she was a prostitute. Then Jesus turned to the crowd and preached to them about forgiveness and compassion. "Have ye not sinned in the eyes of the Lord our God who art in Heaven? Do you not know that no sin is greater than any other sin, and that we all must repent and pray to our Father to forgive us our trespasses? If any of you are without sin, let ye be the first to cast the next stone!!"

Just then, a small lady made her way through the crowd and said, "I'll cast the first stone at this woman! I have not sinned!". Hearing her, Jesus turned around to see who this sinless woman was. When he finally saw her through the masses, he just shook his head and dropped his outstretched hands to his side as he said, "Give me a break, Mom...I'm trying to make a point here!"

EagleEye · « **Reply #29 on:** December 02, 2008, 12:02:57 PM »

Sounds familiar

Jesus saw a crowd chasing down a woman to stone her and approached them. "What's going on here, anyway?" he asked.

"This woman was found committing adultery, and the law says we should stone her!" one of the crowd responded.

"Wait," yelled Jesus. "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone."

Suddenly, a stone was thrown from out of the sky, and knocked the woman on the side of her head.

"Aw, c'mon, Dad..." Jesus cried, "I'm trying to make a point here!"

Steve