Beware of Chain Emails and other scams

There are a lot of chain mails floating around the internet about this, that or the other, examples:

"This device(or substance) will increase your gas mileage by 50 percent"

"Little _______ is dying of cancer and needs your help"

"Microsoft and AOL are giving away $$$$ just for forwarding this to 10 people"

"Boycott ________ for so and so reason"

There are many more, I see at least one or two of these every week. Please be wary of any of this stuff that shows up in your inbox at work or home.

I strongly urge all of you, if you recieve one of these head over to:

Snopes.com

This is site specifically dedicated to looking at urban legends, myths and internet chains and threads to determine their validity or lack thereof

simply use the seach engine input a key word and it should come up with a flag as either True, False, or partially true with a detailed explanation.

If there is one they do not have listed you have received or seen, you can email them and they will check it for you and post the findings, your identity will stay confindential.

Misinformation can be damaging to lots of people, spreading it arround can make things even worse. Please be careful when you get this stuff and always research it before passing it on

Finally, just remember the old axiom:

If it sounds too good to be true, it is.

Thanks guys hope everyone has a great day today.

TJ

Thanks TJ. Those emails are really annoying including the ''religious'' emails guaranteeing you a miracle if you pass it on to your friends . It is insulting G-D, Allah or The Trinity whatsoever to think that He depends on emails to help someonehere on earth
IMHO
Lily

is it more insulting than to think that He depends on prayers to help someonehere on earth?

yeah,too good to be true...and sometimes they are so ridiculous that they actully amuse me a lot.

Please keep our posting within the realm of the OP's original thread. This is not a thread to discuss religious beliefs, it is a thread warning the members about unsolicited emails and suggesting we be careful of misinformation and how to check out the validity of that information.

Thanks
sabby

oh i see these all the time. What gets me is the ones that say, more so on myspace I've seen these, "If you don't pass this note on to someone in the next 5 minutes, you will die tonight". How do people get away with writing that stuff?

It's hard to believe that someone would fall for that in this day and age, but someone must otherwise they'd find it a waste of time. I just hate that they fill up my inbox and I'd really like to know where they got my addy.

ah yes and also the one about getting totally out of debt without paying a thing! Usually this requires up front fees for all sorts of documents...all bogus. It's a scam... one which is still being advertised on a local radio station guess the feds want more time to track them down?

tc

my personal favorite is all the forign(sp?) money with no heir or no way to get out of the country till i send my personal account info so they can split it with me

lost

i get a lot of these i just put them straight into my spam folder without opening them becouse if you open them i was told they know then its a true email address

also ones trying to sell meds and other things go straight to spam

Good post Tim ,,, I know you do your homework and not speculate ,, cool .

Thank you sir. As a journalism major, I want people to be armed with the truth. I hate lies and rumors, especially over the 'net. So if I see this stuff I am on it. If I run into a paticular thing that needs attention, I promise you and everyone here my friend I will post it here and let everyone know.

You all here are my "peeps" and you always look out for your "peeps" its the code.

TJ

I don't understand how an email asking someone to boycott something is considered illegitimate and a scam? Scams make the sender money in some way... chain emails yeah, frustrate all of us (including the ones that say you gotta send it on for your prayer to come true ) However, I have had one of those work (Long story.)

Aren't emails a modern way to send out information and concerns? Even our political candidates are using email to forward messages, some not so popular, to the general populus, and they also encourage us to send them along to others, isn't that then a chain email?

The spreading of misinformation is in my opinion just as bad as a scam. People who are misinformed make bad decisions and that has negative consequences on society as a whole.

Of course these things are free speech under our constitution and are protected. My point is that if you or anyone else gets one of these, do the research before you act on it or pass it to someone else.

I remind everyone that chain emails, and blogs for that matter are not held to the appropriate standard of proper journalism. While blogs are a great thing that empower the average person to get their ideas and opinions out there in front of a lot people, they can also be a source of misinformation as bloggers are not required to site and notate the information upon which the opinion is based.

All I am saying to the people here is this, stay informed about the issues. While Snopes and Wiki are not perfect they are good places to start because they do site source info and provide links to the material in question. I would also make time to visit your local library or bookstore and if time permits it; sit down with an expert on the subject that is in question. You would be suprised how many of these folks enjoy enlightening the average person.

Here are some guidelines to help everyone out:

1. Is what is being presented supported by expert opinion or reliable data?

2. If said opinions are sited via quotes, go to the source material and make sure the individual is acurately quoted and not taken out of context of a much larger quote( politicians are often quilty of that one)

3. Verify any statistics sited, if the sender cannot provide the source material for said stats, then I would stay away from it. It means they are deliberately misleading the reader.

4. Have someone knowlegeable in the field read the post, or blog and get their opinions and discuss.

5. Take anything anyone says, including me, with a pile of salt. Never put blind faith in anything, ignorance is an opportunity for enlightenment, willful ignorance is a sin.

Finally if soneone makes pronouncements about anything remember it is incumbent opon them to provide proof to support the statement(s) regardless of who they are. If someone is not willing to do this, they have no intellectual legitimacy and should be ignored.

Take care everyone, and I am always open to further dialogue, you are welcome to PM me about any social, political or economic issues and I will respond.

TJ

Words of wisdom, thanks for the reminder.

To add-on to what TJ said, there is no way to quickly or easily determine the validity or accuracy of anything we read or watch nowadays (including news, peer-reviewed journals, you name it).

But none of this is new. These things have been going on for 15 or more years. I think most people are aware of spam and phishing attempts (which are far more harmful to individuals than misinformation) and know never to give their account information to anything other than the original, legitimate website.

You just have to use your common sense.

DocJohn

I had one once supposedly from my bank asking for info. thank goodness hubby got that one and called the bank. even had bank logo so it did indeed look legit. be very careful!

I get one of these at least once a month. Hurry hurry hurry, act fast if you don't reply this money will be lost. I wish that I wish that someone would read the reply hello bug someone else I'm not stupid.

Hmm... If I get an email that:

1) Isn't from someone I know
2) Isn't an education address (.edu or whatever)
3) Doesn't have a clear statement in the subject header which suggests it is a legitimate 'introducing myself' and query...

Then I don't open the email. Just send it straight to the trash.

Sometimes they get a read receipt when you open the email at which point they know you have a legit email address and so then... No holds barred let the spamming begin. I've been pretty lucky with not getting much spam, really... If it is legit and I trash it (happens sometimes) then people tend to resend with a clearer header second time round...

At the moment my biggest source of spam is Amazon... Wonder if I can stop them reccomending %#@&#!???

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thelostone said:
my personal favorite is all the forign(sp?) money with no heir or no way to get out of the country till i send my personal account info so they can split it with me

lost

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Haha those are my favorite too. Once i responded and asked for $50,000 so i could free up my money and they got annoyed at me and told me to quit playing games, that this was serious

more myth-busting info,

I found this interesting reference,

http://www.jdlasica.com/hoaxes.html

Its a reference site that comprises a lot of other mythbusting sites so even if you do not have anything to look at for yourself it makes for fun reading

TJ

LOL >> ya call ME ?? Sir ??? LOL . You are going to be so blown out of the water when we meet Tim ,,,, I am a gentle Heart ,,, But when ya try to corrolate that place in which we do the care and then Ya See what stereotypical peep it is generated from >>>.....>>>>.....>>>>>

You Cool Tim ,, in all the good ways fo sho ,,,..

i answered one and told gave them my "attorney's" contact info, because he handled all my financial affairs, never heard back from them

lost

I use sir because I believe you are a true scholar and a gentleman, it is a term of respect

TJ

It 's cool Tim ,, But I serious ,, This picture will not match ,, LOL.

I get these kind of emails from friends...!!! to pass it on, with hundreds of other addresses attached. It's so annoying, and I don't know why the otherwise intelligent friends would believe it or send them. I just delete. But, that said, being from a trusted friend, I often do open them, to be disappointed. Even opening these things is dangerous to internet security.
Patty