Email Etiquette: Stop the spread of Spam!
Email hoaxes are email messages that are invented with one purpose, to be passed on to everyone you know.
If one email message is sent to ten people, and those ten people send it to ten people, and those ten people send it to ten people, by the sixth run of this, that one single email message has made it to one million people! You may think that one teeny tiny message doesn't really have an effect on the Internet, or your privacy, but you couldn't be more wrong!
We pay for the millions of bogus emails to spread across the Internet and eat up bandwidth on our DSL and Cable Internet bills. Secondly, spammers harvest email addresses from hoaxes and chain letters. So if your address is included within one of those messages because the sender did not use proper netiquette and use the BCC field when inserting your address, your address has been published with millions of strangers and become a part of all those spammer's email lists!
If you want to help stop the spread of spam, there are a few simple things you can do.
1. Identify an email hoax when you see one:
The message usually contains something like "send this to everyone you know." No credible source would tell you to do this. Also, the message will normally play on our sense of need to help others (who wouldn't forward on an email about a kidnapped girl?) or our sense of fear (you want to warn your friends about the newest computer virus, don't you?). Another common message is one involving gaining something if you "forward this message on to 20 friends."
2. Check a credible source, like Snopes.com:
Snopes has a database of thousands of email stories. Some are true, but most aren't. There is a search feature that will allow you to enter a phrase from the email. For instance, one email that I have recieved repeatedly throughout the years is one warning me to stop using Febreze because it has been known to posoin and kill pets. Searching the Snopes database for "Febreze" shows me this page, which tells me that there are no known reports of Febreze even injuring an animal, let alone killing one. Another message that everyone has gotten at least 5 times is the promise that Bill Gates is going to give me $1000 if I forward the email on from him! Again, it's simply not true.
After you have identified an email as a hoax, there is only one thing to do. DELETE IT! If you want to take it a step further, I usually respond to the sender and tell them that the message they are sending on is false, and then I direct them to the actual article on Snopes. I also advise them that they should never forward any email message on until they have verified the validity of it.
If everyone took this stance, we could stamp out the spread of spam, reduce our bandwidth costs, and free our inboxes from junk emails.
Comments
I for one use Snopes constantly to disprove spam emails I receive. I recommend it to everyone who sends me chain letters and things of that nature so that they become better informed. Thanks for this timely etiquette posting.
Posted by: Megan | May 31, 2006 03:33 PM