ON HOAXES _________
This is presented as true to the best recollection and is offered
for guidance with NO warranty expressed or implied.
Your mileage may vary.
There are some mis-guided users who like see how far that they
can spread rumor while wreaking not exactly havoc, but rather
plain INconvenience on others.
They take great pride in
writing believable, heart-rending stories and in seeing
how far their well-spun stuff can be propagated.
Apparently they conclude that better writing
causes greater and faster spread.
Their best accomplices are those
those who fall for these stories and feel that they are doing
good for mankind by spreading it far an wide to everybody
in their E-Mail Address-Book.
Some of these are simply Hoaxes about NON-EXISTANT VIRUSES.
For further info on Viruses, see at ...
On_Viruses
Sometimes folks
who are against a particular current political matter
will send out a Hoax
message telling everybody NOT to open any messages containing
a "Subject:" field which includes any reference to the matter.
Sometimes this can be almost as effective as book-burning.
There are NO counters in the internet which can determine
how may times an email message has been sent. Regardless
of how may co-workers, notaries, bankers, brokers, and lawyers
swear that it works and everyone else can reap big rewards, too.
Most E-Mail messages which request that they be forward to
everyone on the Planet, are UNfortunately HOAXES.
Rewards__
There have been a LOT of email messages claiming that if you forward that message
of prayer, of a deserving needy, or of a cool PC product to at least 35 other people, then
you or the needy will receive a reward of healing or cash. Some indicate that their
best friend got $50 this way and that a lawyer
even checked it out and said that it is NOT A HOAX but rather is actually FOR REAL.
If you have done any such and are wondering when your reward will come in the mail
then it may be that they could not sufficiently identify your address and that
your name or email address will be found on the
"Official List of UN-claimed Rewards"
Validate Before You Forward__
Before perpetuating these and risking your correspondents'
realizing just how gullible you are, try to check them
out for validity.
Before spreading things of this nature, PLEASE take a moment to
CHECK IT OUT. There are two ways ...
1. Give some of the text to your favorite search
engine that will accept quoted strings. These allow for
searching web sites for the exact words which are included in
the quotes. My favorite is
Google
to which can be given a search argument like
"His kidneys were stolen" which will give
THESE RESULTS.
2. Go to one of the many sites which track this sort of thing
(many are shown as sites in the above results)
and give it some of the salient keywords from the story.
Some of the best are ...
www.datafellows.com
http://www.snopes.com
www.truthorfiction.com
www.urbanlegends.com
urbanlegends.miningco.com
hoaxinfo.com
www.straightdope.com
www.itd.umich.edu/virusbusters
Have the Fortitude to Justly and
Temperately Keep Your Prudence in Balance.
On_Other_Stuff