Identify and deal with Email Chain Letters

Simple Sensible Guidelines

  • Do not re-distribute any chain letter. Chain letters increase telecommunication costs and make computer and internet resources unavailable for legitimate communications.
  • Do not open email if you do not recognise the author, especially if it has a doubtful attachment, which might be a virus. JDI - Just Delete It, AND delete it from your 'deleted items' folder.
  • Do not respond to a "remove" facility provided by a 'spam' email - it's a trick to get you to confirm your email address.  They will then sell your email address to others.
  • Think twice before forwarding any mail. If it does not say "this is a chain letter"  that does not mean it's NOT a chain letter. We are all guilty of it - we get something that sounds authoritative, it's been forwarded by several people, and we forward it on to others - don't. JDI - Just Delete It.
  • And, if I cannot resist it, and decide that you must forward an email, joke, pretty picture, etc. (some are irresistible, aren't they...) use "Blind Copies" and remove any previous 'forwarded' email addresses, so you don't share and publicise all the correspondents' email addresses with a huge list of people they don't know. Ultimately that's one way email addresses get into the hands of spammers. With a Blind Copy, each recipient only sees their own email address.
  • There are many hoaxes, myths, and urban legends, that will probably never die because it is simply too easy to forward items via e-mail.

Examples:

  • A 7 year old boy dying of cancer wants business cards for the world record
  • Bill Gates offering $1,000 plus a free copy of Windows 98
  • "Blue Star" tattoos laced with LSD are being sold to kids at school
  • The "Good Times" virus destroys hard drives, is transmitted by text
  • "Win a Holiday" warning from Microsoft, destroys your hard drive
  • The Neiman-Marcus cookie recipe (woman charged $250 for it).
    This is one of the oldest on the Net and I received it twice in 1998, and again in 2003!

These were all debunked as myths, except the first one, which was based on fact but he was cured, is now 17, got the record and is now sick again - this time from the sacks of mail he is still receiving.

FIRST, CHECK with...