Watch that
"Forward" Button!
Ed Poplin
LonePalm Graphics
I know you've done it. I've done it. We've all done it. But don't do it
automatically.
You know how it goes. You get a joke, or an inspirational
email of one kind or another, and you say to yourself, "Self? I bet
EVERYONE in my address book would LOVE to have this!" And so, you click on
the proper buttons in your email program, and all 1,485 persons in your
address book, from Albert to Ziggy, will see the mailing you found so
funny or so inspirational.
I'm not for a moment suggesting you stop sharing your
favorite chuckles with Albert, and Ziggy needs all the positive statements
she can read. But have you ever received, and forwarded email that
promised money for sending it to everyone in your address book, a plea to
help a crippled boy, a virus warning, or the like? I want you to raise
your right hand and repeat after me. "I will no longer forward messages
that contain warnings, requests or the like, because they're nothing but
rumors, and I will not forward any more rumors."
Yeah, I'd heard that about you.
These "Internet hoaxes" may seem harmless --- many are
not, by the way ---- but even if every one of them was perfectly
innocuous, forwarding them contributes greatly to the amount of spam that
plugs our digital mail delivery systems. For instance, do any of these
seem familiar?
-
"Netscape and AOL have recently merged to form the
largest internet company in the world. In an effort to remain at pace
with this giant, Microsoft has introduced a new email tracking system as
a way to keep Internet Explorer as the most popular browser on the
market. This email is a beta test of the new software and Microsoft has
generously offered to compensate those who participate in the testing
process."
-
If you got this email you're lucky (don't delete). You
have just won a 100 dollars!....... You will only get the money if you
send this to 5 or more people. A box will appear on the screen after you
have sent it! It really works.... try it! Take 5 min. out of your time
and send this...believe me you won't be sorry!!"
-
"BIG TROUBLE !!!! DO NOT OPEN "WTC Survivor" It is a
virus that will erase your whole "C" drive. It will come to you in the
form of an E-Mail from a familiar person. I repeat a friend sent it to
me, but called and warned me before I opened it. He was not so lucky and
now he can't even start his computer! Forward this to everyone in your
address book. I would rather receive this 25 times than not at all. If
you receive an email called "WTC Survivor" do not open it. Delete it
right away! This virus removes all dynamic link libraries (.dll files)
from your computer."
How do you recognize these hoaxes for what they are? Well,
many hoaxes contain promises of money for every person to whom you forward
the message. If you ever see that statement, or something similar, you can
delete it. There is no such thing as a program that can track email, and
there never can be a program that tracks forwarded email, because of the
way email is handled on the Internet.
You see, in order for something like that to work, several
things would have to be true:
1. All email, regardless of its source or destination,
would have to be identified at a central point.
2. Your email software would have to know the origin of every forwarded
message, then send a message to that starting point every time you forward
that email.
The reason the Internet works is that there is no
central computer. For various reasons some large Internet-related
companies, users or servers have gone down from time to time, but the 'Net
still functioned. Traffic just bypassed the effected areas.
For instance, I live in Florida. As an extremely odd
coincidence, so do many people I send email to. It is extremely likely
that any email I send to one of my fellow Floridians would never leave the
physical borders of the Sunshine State. If you live in New York, and send
an email to a relative in the old country, odds are that your email will
zip across the Atlantic, and never go near a computer in any other state.
Since there's no central email handling facility, so to speak, there's
simply no way to keep track of who sent an email, how many times it got
forwarded, and who received them.
Regardless of the lack of email tracking software,
companies and businesses are not standing in line to give away money, gift
certificates, or merchandise. I've always observed that Rome did not
become great by reaching group consensus; Rome became great by killing the
opposition. Similarly, Microsoft did not become rich sending money to
innumerable email users. Microsoft became rich by hoarding its cash.
Please read: There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.
Virus hoaxes vary, but they all have one common thread:
They never come from a recognized source of information or
knowledge about viruses. An email bulletin from Symantec or antivirus.com
I'll believe; an email warning from "a friend," especially if it contains
WORDS IN ALL CAPITALS!!! and multiple exclamation marks I won't.
Now, you might very well say to yourself, "Self?" (there
you go, talking to yourself again) "Why not send this on? After
all, better safe than sorry." Wrong, beta-breath.
Many of the virus hoaxes tell you how to delete files on
your computer that you actually need. They also unnecessarily spread a
certain level of fear and mistrust, and after enough bad experiences with
phony warnings, some users might disregard any of them, even the
ones from legitimate sources.
Many of these hoaxes have caused significant problems for
companies or organizations. A very well known restaurant chain, for
instance, had to put up a special section on its web site, just to tell
people that it was not participating in a gift certificate giveaway. I
wonder how many people stopped going to that restaurant just because they
felt the company was trying to cheat them out of something they earned. A
well-known sports apparel maker had its shipping unit almost shut down,
because it got flooded with old shoes. (The hoax promised that if people
sent the company their old shoes, the company would use them to shoe
barefoot third-world children, and send them a brand new replacement pair
for their efforts). Again, I'd be willing to wager that company lost a
certain amount of business because the hoax cost it a certain amount of
goodwill.
How can you be sure that what you're reading is a hoax,
and not a legitimate request or warning? Well, the first thing you can do
is check to see if anyone else has reported the message you've received.
Odds are good that's true; many of today's hoaxes have been in circulation
for years. Two good sources for debunking Internet myths is
Hoaxbusters and
Urban Legends.
We should take warnings about new viruses seriously, but
again, only if they come from a trusted source. If you're unfamiliar with
their services, both
Trend Micro
and
Norton offer fully-searchable databases of virus hoaxes, in addition
to the legitimate security threats. I'd recommend you subscribe to one of
their newsletters or security bulletins as well.
But regardless of the source of the hoax or its purpose,
you can play a big role in stopping hoaxes in their digital tracks. Just
don't forward them. Delete them. Remember: If it sounds too good to be
true, it probably is. No person, and no company has any software that can
track email. No company is going to send you anything of value for sending
email. And any email you receive that tells you to delete a file on your
hard drive can safely be ignored and discarded.
Now, forward this article to everyone in your address
book. Do it immediately, and a well-known computer-related company will
send you a brand-new, state of the art system. ;-)
About the author:
Ed Poplin has been a professional writer and designer for more than 20
years. He's been writing about computers, the Internet, and their related
technologies since 1994.
Witchcraft
Articles Free Spells
|
