Have you ever received an email about:
-Perfume Robbers who get you to smell perfume that is really ether
-That cell phone numbers will be released (in just 4 days!) to telemarketing companies
-That poor Rachel Arlington is dying of cancer and AOL will track your email forwards and give money to her parents for everyone you forward "this" to...
-That Penny Brown is missing and it only takes '2 seconds to forward this on...if it was your child, you would want all the help you could get.'
-Or that Applebee's/AOL/Outback/CrackerBarrel/Bill Gates/etc are going to give away free lunch/$1000/free vacations/new computers/cash/ new cars/ etc .... did you ever forward those on? If so, where is your 'free stuff?'
Ah, yes.... we've all fallen victim to it at some time. Especially hoaxes about email virus (Don't open any email with the subject "XYZ" because it is a virus). But alas, we can know the truth!
It was a few years ago when someone introduced me to one of my FAVORITE websites: www.snopes.com
Snopes is an urban legends website database. You can type in key words from any email forward you recieve and you will most likely find an article detailing the authenticity of the exact email you are questioning. They even cite their sources so you can rest assured that snopes is not ALSO trying to pull one over on you. Just because your 'best friend from church' sent you an email forward, it does not mean it's legit! You should go and check it's accuracy/legitimacy for yourself before you contribute to spreading lies on the Internet!
I get email forwards often (surprisingly though, from none of my blog readers that I am aware of)!! I always hate that sinking feeling when I read the forward and see it's a hoax. I'm always torn with what to do: do I email my friend who sent it that it is a hoax OR do nothing. I want to enlighten the world to the fact that everything they read/receive is NOT true!
Because sending an email to everyone in my email address book about this issue would be highly offensive (and some might not want to be my friend anymore), I decided to type my little soap box out on here!
Here are some other links of interest for those of you who would like to explore this topic a little further:
Top 25 Email Hoaxes that are currently circulating
REAL LIFE odd news stories that you can forward guilt free -updated DAILY for your enjoyment
And again, www.snopes.com is the website I refer to often! There are a lot of emails going around right now dealing with the upcoming elections so even those kinds of emails are worth checking! In the top right corner of the snopes homepage there is a box titled "Search." If you type in key words from the email in question it will bring up articles in the database that match it!
Now, on one more note.... I LOVE funny emails that I don't have to send on to 10 people (or I'll be cursed with bad luck). So please, do not take this post to mean I don't want any emails ever again! I just don't want email hoaxes!!
4 comments:
Very informative post. I heard of this website, but I don't use it very often. I usually delete those mass forwarded emails.
No wonder we didn't hear from you on our boards, you were typing up this long informative post. I remember trying to convince my mom that not everything she read was true....
Too funny Amanda. I just stepped off of my soapbox this morning. Almost every blog you read now is a commercial. I dont know how they do it but when you read their post they get paid for it and I get a tons of email... ick....I hated to say too much about it because Im like you. Didnt want to offend anyone. Im always scared to open things if its a forward because I would hate to crash this thing. Hope you have a great day or is it night for you..... Smiles, Susie
Amen! I discovered snopes.com a few years ago, and have been hooked ever since! Sometimes I will email back the person who sent a hoax, just so they aren't worried about fowarding it to anyone else. (like the starbucks hoax) I love Starbucks, so I didn't want any rumors about them! LOL I have forwarded things, but I've kinda stopped now, unless it's a joke, etc. and I always check it out on snopes.com now!! Great post!
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