{"id":2222,"date":"2011-01-10T23:39:09","date_gmt":"2011-01-11T03:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.useragentman.com\/blog\/"},"modified":"2011-01-11T00:35:15","modified_gmt":"2011-01-11T04:35:15","slug":"e-mail-warnings-just-say-no","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.useragentman.com\/blog\/e-mail-warnings-just-say-no\/","title":{"rendered":"E-mail Warnings – Just Say No."},"content":{"rendered":"

You are most likely reading this because someone who cares about your well-being thought you needed to read this. They sent you here because you are being exploited, bamboozled and taken advantage of. You have a kind heart and care about others a lot and that<\/em> is your Achilles’ heel.<\/p>\n

Why did your friend, your co-worker, or your family member ask you to read this? Because you are a victim of an electronic chain mail.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Someone, probably thinking they were “doing the right thing”, sent you a message warning you about some computer virus, banking scam or some other thing of public interest. The e-mail sounds really credible because it tells you it was reported on CNN, Fox News or some other “legitimate” news institution (personally, I do question the legitimacy of these organizations, but I digress)<\/em>. If it is a warning about a computer virus, they’ll try to tell you that this information came from Google, Microsoft, AOL, Norton or some other well-known technology company. It may even try to convince the most skeptical reader by stating that “this has even been confirmed by Snopes”, with a link to a (supposed) Snopes.com article (for those of you not in the know: Snopes is a site that verifies\/debunks urban legends and other outrageous claims).<\/p>\n

Always be suspicious if these e-mails<\/strong>, even if it comes from someone you trust. The vast majority of the time, it’s a scam. Sometimes it is a scam from someone who is just having a little fun at your expense. Sometimes it is a scam that is using the e-mail to gather e-mail addresses and sell them for spamming purposes. Sometimes it is a scam being used to spread a real<\/em> virus. In all cases, though, it is using one tried-and-true method of spreading itself around: the kindness of the average human being.<\/p>\n

“I Feel So Stupid.”<\/h2>\n

Don’t feel stupid. Many friends of mine fall for this, and they are far from stupid. Sometimes, I am hesitant to approach my friends when this happens because I don’t want them to feel embarrassed that they have been scammed. You are not stupid, so don’t feel that way!<\/strong> Feel angry at the people who started the scam in the first place. They are not only wasting your time<\/strong> when you send out these e-mails, but they are destroying your good name online<\/strong>. How? Because the more you, and other people with good intentions like you send out these e-mails, the more times your e-mail address will be put in someone’s spam filter. It’s the reason why certain family members don’t answer your e-mails. It’s not because they don’t love you. It’s because they, themselves, don’t want to read electronic chain mail.<\/p>\n

How To Fight Back!<\/h2>\n

There are some very simple things you can do to fight back:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Be very wary of e-mails that tell you to “send this to all<\/em> your friends!”<\/strong> It is the most common phrase that causes e-mails like this to spread like the plague. If you see this phrase, you can be almost positive it is crap-mail.<\/li>\n
  2. When you see an e-mail like this, copy and paste a phrase from the e-mail and search for it in Google<\/strong> (or Bing, or whatever search engine you like). Look at the pages the search engine returns. If it’s a scam (and it almost always is), you’ll see web pages talking about how scammy it is.<\/li>\n
  3. If the e-mail says something like “This has been confirmed by X” where X is Fox News, CNN, Oprah or some other mainstream news organization, don’t take their word for it!<\/strong> Test out their claims by going to X’s official website and search for news about the e-mail’s warning on their site. You’ll see more often than not that there is nothing there because the e-mail you have received is a scam. (Note:<\/strong> Don’t click on any links on the e-mail that look like they would lead you to more info. They are probably fake and may (but not always) contain viruses or something equally as nasty).<\/li>\n
  4. You know that friend or family member that is good with computers? You know, that person that you always ask to fix your computer when ever you think you have a virus or have problems connecting to the net? The one that has either been online longer than you and has been a computer geek since he or she was 11? Call that person (call, don’t e-mail<\/strong>) and ask them if the warning is real. Listen to them if they tell you it’s a scam. Then, take them out for dinner for being such an awesome friend\/family member and for being your personal pro-bono IT department all these years. Don’t cheap out and take them to McDonald’s or Denny’s either.<\/strong> Take them someplace decent, or better yet, make them dinner!<\/strong> Trust me, geeky people like me will be much happier to help you out next time if you do this. Ask my parents. I am always happy to fix their computers and my mom is also an excellent cook.<\/strong> Best pierogies you will ever taste from someone who was born and raised in Japan (or in the Ukraine, for that matter, but don’t tell them that).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    In Conclusion<\/h2>\n

    Don’t be a victim. Learn to uncover these hoaxes, and stop being the victim by blindly sending out e-mails. You and your loved ones will be better off!<\/p>\n

    Feel free to pass this along to others who you think it’ll benefit. But whatever you do, don’t send it in an e-mail that begs people to send it to everyone they know<\/strong>. If you do, I’ll be very<\/strong> disappointed in you.<\/p>\n

    With Lots of Respect,
    \nZoltan Hawryluk,
    \nJanuary 10, 2011.<\/p>\n

    P.S. You should also restrict yourself to forwarding one joke e-mail a month.<\/strong> Any more is way too much. Really.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    You are most likely reading this because someone who cares about your well-being thought you needed to read this. They sent you here because you are being exploited, bamboozled and taken advantage of. You have a kind heart and care about others a lot and that is your Achilles’ heel. Why did your friend, your […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2222","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.useragentman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.useragentman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.useragentman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.useragentman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.useragentman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2222"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"http:\/\/www.useragentman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2235,"href":"http:\/\/www.useragentman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2222\/revisions\/2235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.useragentman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}