From time to time, we are sent bits in the e-mail that are just too good to sit on although we end up shoving them in a file folder for future reference anyway. The article below has been burning a hole in NOWAYWINS' hard drive for a while (I didn't ask how long), yet the advice is more than timely and very much worth your read.

Forward This To All Your Friends
By David Barnett

How many times have you received a message asking you to send a copy to all of your friends? Did you send it along? Maybe it looked legitimate, or maybe it was from a trusted source such as a close friend. Did you check it out first, or did you just forward it to everyone in your address book?

There are many Internet stories and "urban legends" being circulated on the Internet, and they often sound very legitimate. Many times, they prey on a persons sense of duty, of wanting to do what's right, of wanting to help right a wrong. Oftentimes, they prey on our natural fears. Unfortunately, many of these are also false stories; sometimes they were never true in the first place; sometimes they were true at one time, but are now outdated; and sometimes they simply twist facts to suit the author's purpose.

In this article, I'm going to address several of the more common rumors, chain letters, virus warnings, and stories that are circulating on the Internet. I'll let you know which ones are false (most of them), and which ones are true, and I'll also give you a few sources where you can verify the validity of these stories.

WHAT SHOULD YOU DO IF SOMEONE SENDS YOU ONE OF THESE STORIES?

Regardless of whether you feel you can trust the person who sent it to you, and no matter how official or realistic it may look to you, if you don't know if it's true or not, you should check it out before you send it to someone else.

If you have checked it out and verified that it is false, I recommend that you send a nice email to the person who sent it to you, explaining it to them, providing them with the information or link verifying its falsehood, and encouraging them to notify the person who sent it to them AND anyone else they may have forwarded it to.

WHAT'S THE HARM IN FORWARDING IT, EVEN IF IT'S JUST A FALSE RUMOR?

First of all, if it is false, then telling someone else about it is a lie. We don't want to be responsible for spreading lies.

Second, these emails take time to read or scan and delete. As an email newsletter publisher, I receive dozens of these emails each week from well-meaning readers. It takes time to go through these emails, and also to verify the stories.

Third, these emails take up space on your computer. The more of these floating around, the more space they take up. They also take up space on your Internet service provider's servers, and any other servers used in the transmission of messages. Imagine how much space these occupy collectively on the world's servers.

Fourth, they take time and bandwidth to download. Some people don't have unlimited or free Internet access. More of these messages means more time to connect to the email servers, and more costs.

Finally, many of these chain letters ask people to take action, like emailing an organization or writing letters to a company or politician. In addition to the cost and time of someone doing this, it also takes a lot of cost and time of the organization, company, or politician, which is time taken away from their real purposes. Don't be a cause of these distractions.

HOW DO I KNOW IF ONE OF THESE STORIES IS TRUE?

As a rule of thumb, if it has the words "Send this to all of your friends" or some variation of that, it is probably a hoax. A real warning from a credible source will not tell you to forward it to everyone you know.

Legitimate businesses (i.e. Microsoft, AOL, Coca Cola, The Gap, etc.) never conduct business by chain letters. If you receive an email from a company asking you to forward it or promising you something if you do, it's not legitimate.

Legitimate warnings and solicitations will always have the name and contact information for a source of the information. Emails lacking this information are probably hoaxes. However, merely having legitimate-sounding contact information does not necessarily mean that a story is true.

There are several places on the Internet where you can go to verify the stories you receive from well-meaning friends.

(http://www.scambusters.org/legends.html). This site lists dozens of hoaxes and false rumors, as well as more sources for research. Scambusters also has a free email newsletter.

Another great site for information on how to spot a false rumor or chain letter is Hoaxbusters (http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/). Hoaxbusters is a public service of the CIAC (Computer Incident Advisory Capability) Team and the U.S. Department of Energy.

For a large variety of hoaxes, rumors, and urban legends, check out Snopes.com (http:\\www.snopes.com). They have a searchable database, so you can enter a keyword from the message you want to research and it will take you to related articles.

WHAT ARE SOME OF THESE STORIES, HOAXES, AND RUMORS?

First, let's cover some of the religion-based emails:

THEME: Jesus will be portrayed as a homosexual in an upcoming film. This email urges you to sign the email and forward it on, and also encourages you to write letters of protest to the Attorney General of various states.

STATUS: FALSE. This petition first started circulating as early as 1984, when in fact, there never was such a film.

THEME: Atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hair is trying to get religious broadcasting banned from radio and television.

STATUS: FALSE. This particular hoax tends to evolve periodically. A few years ago, the popular TV show Touched By An Angel was added to the chain letter as a potential target for the bannings. The following is excerpted from the Urban Legends Reference Pages:

Madalyn Murray O'Hair never petitioned the FCC to ban religious programming nor was she ever granted a hearing by that regulatory body to discuss the matter. That's not all that surprising either for there is no federal law or regulation that gives the FCC the authority to prohibit radio and television stations from presenting religious programs.

The real RM-2493 had nothing to do with Madalyn Murray O'Hair nor did it have anything to do with banning religious broadcasting. That didn't stop the above petition from being widely circulated as concerned citizen after concerned citizen signed it, then sent it on to an ever-widening circle. It's still kicking around to this day despite the real RM-2493 going in front of the FCC in 1974 and being turned down by that body in 1975.

It was a given that Madalyn Murray O'Hair would come to be associated with the "ban religious broadcasting" petition. It was largely through her efforts that in 1963 the U.S. Supreme Court barred organized prayer from the public schools, bringing her national infamy. (In 1964 LIFE magazine headlined her as "the most hated woman in America," a title she burnished as a badge of honor.)

For the past few years, she's been the focus of a mystery. In August 1995, Madalyn (then 76), along with her son, Jon (40), and granddaughter, Robin (30), vanished from their home, reportedly with breakfast still cooking, and were never seen again.

A recent news story indicates that they may have recovered the remains of Madalyn on a ranch in Texas. Interestingly, her son William, now 54, is a Christian evangelist.

THEME: US Attorney General Janet Reno defines a cultist on a 60 Minutes interview. Her reported definition was as follows:

A cultist is one who has a strong belief in the Bible and the Second Coming of Christ; who frequently attends Bible's studies; who has a high level of financial giving to a Christian cause; who home schools for their children; who has accumulated survival foods and has a strong belief in the Second Amendment; and who distrust big government. Any of these may qualify but certainly more than one would cause us to look at this person as a threat, and his family as being in a risk situation that qualified for government interference.

STATUS: FALSE. Janet Reno never made such a statement on 60 Minutes or anywhere else.

THEME: Immediate prayers are needed for Mike Hutchinson, a missionary in West Africa, who is on trial for murder and will be hanged if found guilty.

STATUS: FALSE. While this message has its roots in truth's (a boy in Senegal did step in front of Mr. Hutchinson vehicle and subsequently died), there was no mob as alleged in the email, he is not being tried for murder, and he is not in danger of being hanged. In fact, Mr. Hutchinson is now back in the United States.

THEME: Prayers are needed for David Allen, a missionary in Thailand, who is dying from an unknown disease.

STATUS: FALSE. Like the previous theme, this one also has its roots in truth, but the crisis is over, and David Allen is doing well.

The preceding two themes are examples of good intentions gone bad. While there is certainly nothing wrong with praying for someone even after their situation has passed, it is still perpetuating an untruth. Prayers would be better used for those in need now, rather than those whose crises no longer exist.

If you must pass on a prayer request, I suggest the following guidelines:

1. Only pass it on if the request is from someone you know personally.
2. Put a date on it.
3. Put your contact information on the email so people can contact you about the validity of the request.

THEME: Scientific discoveries supporting scriptures.

VARIATIONS:

• NASA scientists discover a lost day in time.
• An atheist professor challenges God to stop a piece of chalk from breaking.
• Scientists drilling in Siberia drill down to the center of the Earth and reach Hell.
• A group known as "The Second Coming Project" is seeking to clone Jesus from the DNA of holy relics.

STATUS: FALSE. Most of these are simply stories that someone made up or embellished. They prey on Christians? desire to justify or prove the existence of God.

THEME: Missing Child -- A little girl named Kelsey Brooke Jones is missing. Sometimes a photo is attached to the email.

STATUS: FALSE. The child was in fact missing, but only for about two hours. Apparently, her mother awoke from a nap and discovered the child missing, and immediately called the police. When the police arrived and an officer began knocking on doors in the neighborhood, the child was found playing at a neighbor's house. No one knows for sure how this one got started -- the mother claims she did not circulate this email. For more details on this, visit http://www.snopes2.com/inboxer/children/kelsey.htm .

NOTE: There are many missing children, and occasionally one of these emails turns out to be true. The best place to check them out is at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children web site at http://www.missingkids.com. There you can search for a child by name and verify if the concern is real or not.

THEME: Forward the email to your friends, and receive money or products depending on the number of forwards. A variation usually involves an ill child, and the email claims that some organization will donate so many cents for every email that gets forwarded.

STATUS: FALSE. It's impossible to track an email as it's forwarded. For a complete explanation of why, visit http://www.urbanlegends.com/ulz/emailtracking.html.

THEME: Danger Alerts

VARIATIONS:

• AIDS or disease infected needles are being planted in coin return slots, movie theater seats, gas pump handles, etc.
• Viruses are being mailed to people in envelopes, usually on small sponges.
• Rat urine on the tops of soda cans can kill you.
• Kidney thieves are stealing kidneys from sleeping victims.
• Using a certain product (shampoo, drug, aspartame, etc.) can cause cancer or sickness or is toxic.
• Gang initiations target motorists.
• Many others.

STATUS: FALSE. The vast majority of these are in fact, blatantly false, meant simply to scare people. They sometimes sound real enough, but they are not. If you have any questions on whether a danger alert is real, check out one of the sites mentioned above.

THEME: Computer Virus Warnings

STATUS: Some true, some false.

So how can you tell the true from the false ones?

Source: Where did you get the warning? If your friend forwarded it, which came from her cousin, who got it from her daughter, who got it from her friend at college, who got it from the US Virus Lab, it's probably a hoax. If you subscribe to a virus scanning service (you should!) with your virus scanning software, you will probably receive the alert directly from them.

Does it ask you to forward it? Genuine virus alerts from legitimate sources won't tell you to forward it to everyone you know.

Does it link to a legitimate source? A genuine virus alert will probably give a brief description of the virus, and will have a link to more information. However, sometimes fake virus warnings will also link to a legitimate site. The genuine link will take you directly to information on the specific virus, not to the site's home page.

How can you verify if the virus warning is true? Check out a legitimate website, such as one of the following:

• http://www.vmyths.com/
• http://www.mcafee.com/
• http://www.symantec.com/

ARE ANY OF THESE EMAILS TRUE?

Some are, but even the ones that are true are often exaggerated. For example, you may have seen the one that warns you never to dial area code 809. This one happens to be TRUE. That particular area code belongs to the Dominican Republic, not to the United States, although you would dial it just like you would dial any long-distance number. However, it functions like calling a 900-number, in which you get charged for every minute you are on the line, usually at exorbitant rates. The common version you may have seen states that you will be charged $2,425 per minute, but the reality is much less than that, although it will still cost a lot of money, and you will have little or no recourse with your phone company since the charges are coming from a foreign country.

CONCLUSION

When you get these emails, the best things to do are:

1. Check it out. If you are not sure if it's real, check it out on one of the sites listed above. My favorite is http://www.snopes.com/ because it's easy to remember, has good search capabilities, and is one of the most comprehensive sites available on hoaxes. I'd even recommend that you spend a few hours some time going through their site and reading up on the various hoaxes. It will be both educational and entertaining.
2. If it is not real, or if you aren't sure, DON'T FORWARD IT. Simply ignore and delete it.
3. If you are sure it is not real, let the person who sent it to you know about it, and urge them to check these out before forwarding them. Send them a copy of this article, if you like. Direct them to http://www.snopes.com/ or one of the other sites above. And encourage them to send a message to anyone else they've sent it to and the person who sent it to them, asking them to help stop the spread of these false stories and hoaxes.
4. If it is real, then feel free to forward it if you like. It's a good idea to include a link to the site where you checked it out and which verifies its authenticity.

I almost hate to say it, but since we, as Christians, should desire to put a stop to the spread of false rumors, stories, and lies, I'm inviting you to...

FORWARD THIS TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS!

We would like to give credit or attribute where credit is due. Unfortunately, source information of this article is no longer available. If you know for whom the author cited above wrote this piece, please forward the information so that we can give proper attribute.

Other Articles This Issue:

Article: CheetaChat Review by AngelPie_Mouse

Article: Firewall Protection by NOWAYWINS

Article: E-Mail Usage and Etiquette

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