Email Security (The Truth) 1. Big companies dont do business via chain letter. Bill Gates is not giving you $1000, and Disney is not giving you a free vacation. There is no baby food company issuing class-action checks. MTV will not give you backstage passes if you forward something to the most people. You can relax; there is no need to pass it on just in case its true. Furthermore, just because someone said in the message, four generations back, that we checked it out and its legit, does not actually make it true. And the person that wrote two weeks later I received a check for $24,870 is sitting back laughing at all the people that believed his comment. 2. There is no kidney theft ring in New Orleans. No one is waking up in a bathtub full of ice, even if a friend of a friend swears it happened to their cousin. If you are bent on believing the kidney-theft ring stories, please visit urbanlegends.tqn/library/weekly/aa062997.htm And I quote: The National Kidney Foundation has repeatedly issued requests for actual victims of organ thieves to come forward and tell their stories. None have. Thats none as in zero. Not even your friends cousin. 3. Neiman Marcus doesnt really sell a $200 cookie recipe. And even if they do, we all have it. And even if you dont, you can get a copy at bl.net/forwards/cookie.html. Then, if you make the recipe, decide the cookies are that awesome, feel free to pass the recipe on. 4. If the latest NASA rocket disaster(s) DID contain plutonium that went to particulate over the eastern seaboard, do you REALLY think this information would reach the public via an AOL chain-letter? 5. There is no Good Times virus. In fact, you should never, ever, ever forward any email containing any virus warning unless you first confirm that an actual site of an actual company that actually deals with viruses. Try: norton/ or sassman.net/virus/sitelinks.html And even then, dont forward it. We dont care. And you cannot get a virus from a flashing IM or email, you have to download....ya know, like, a FILE! 6. If youre using Outlook, IE, or Netscape to write email, turn off the HTML encoding, Those of us on Unix shells cant read it, and dont care enough to save the attachment and then view it with a web browser, since youre probably forwarding us a copy of the Neiman Marcus Cookie Recipe anyway. 7. If you still absolutely MUST forward that 10th-generation message from a friend, at least have the decency to trim the eight miles of headers showing everyone else whos received it over the last 6 months. It sure wouldnt hurt to get rid of all the dashes and arrows that begin each line. Besides, if it has gone around that many times weve probably already seen it. 8. Craig Shergold (or Sherwood, or Sherman, etc.) in England is not dying of cancer or anything else at this time and would like everyone to stop sending him their business cards. He apparently is also no longer a little boy either. 9. The Make a Wish foundation is a real organization doing fine work, but they have had to establish a special toll free hot line in response to the large number of Internet hoaxes using their good name and reputation. It is distracting them from the important work they do. 10. If you are one of those people who forwards anything that promises something bad will happen if you dont, then something bad will happen to you if I ever meet you in a dark alley. This includes prayers for good luck, as the Bible is not a luck book. 11. Women really are suffering in Afghanistan, but forwarding an e-mail wont help them in the least. If you want to help, contact your local legislative representative, or get in touch with the Red Cross. As a general rule, e-mail signatures are easily faked and mean nothing to anyone with any power to do anything about whatever the competition is complaining about. (P.S. There is no bill pending before Congress that will allow long distance companies to charge you for long distance when using the Internet.) (P.P.S. Madeline Murry OHair has disappeared and is presumed dead. Theres no bill before Congress calling to remove In God We Trust from our currency.) (P.P.P.S. The Post Office isnt pushing for legislation to charge people 22 cents for every e-mail they send either.) Bottom Line ... composing e-mail or posting something on the Net is as easy as writing on the walls of a public restroom. Dont automatically believe it until its proven false... ASSUME its false, unless there is proof that its true. Got it? Are you sure? Good.
Posted on: Mon, 07 Jul 2014 03:07:00 +0000
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