Email Hoax?
An email hoax is an email with the sole purpose of spreading as fast as possible across the internet. While many times the email may appear to be for a good cause, the purposes of these messages are solely for the entertainment of a few people. Some examples of hoax emails are those for someone very ill who needs prayer or for a petition.
Who writes them and why? Email hoaxes are created for the same reason many viruses are created. They are not intended to do harm but the writer wishes to see how fast their creation can span the globe. A virus might infect a computer without a dangerous payload and may only notify the writer of its location while an email hoax might include a small graphic image that notifies the writer how many times it was sent in a given day.
However, an email hoax may actually be designed to harvest email addresses for spam. Here is one, scenario. I become friends with numerous people online vie email and message boards who all like to forward cute internet messages. Because we are all supposedly interested in the same things, we all end up receiving the same emails. If I create an email that asks the reader to forward it along to their friends and I send the message to a few people, I know it will eventually come back to me. What happens when we typically forward email? This may look familiar:
>From: sue@example.com
>To: paul@example.com, ben@example.com, frank@example.com
>Subject: FW: FW: You got see this
>Wow…you will not believe this one…
>
>>From: allen@example.com
>>To: sue@example.com, alex@example.com, tim@example.com
>>Subject: FW: You gotta see this
>>This was pretty funny…>
>>
>>>From: wendy@example.com
>>>To: allen@example.com, sara@example.com, bill@example.com
>>>Subject: You gotta see this
>>>
>>>Hey! Check out this cool website I found. [Blah…blah…blah].
>>>Don’t forget to forward this along.
Once this message comes back to me, I could write a small program to harvest all the email addresses. Because this has been forwarded to known good email addresses, I could get a premium price from a spammer. You see what’s happening?
So, should you stop forwarding those cute emails? Well, there have been plenty of studies that show if a single email goes to a million people (if everyone who receives the message send it to ten people, you can reach this number fairly quickly) and it takes just one minute to read and forward along and these people make $10/hr:
1,000,000 * 1/60 * $10.00 = $166,666.67
Now a typical work day is filled with distractions so that one email is not really affecting the bottom line of any company, but you get the picture. You don’t have to refrain from sending these messages. Simply make sure to delete the forwarded email addresses.
+ + +
Here is an example using the commonly forwarded email that inspired me to create this site and transform a hoax into a well defined tribute to our troops:
You will soon see a lot of people wearing RED on Fridays. Here’s why…..
The Americans, who support our troops, are the silent majority. We are not “organized” to reflect who we are, or to reflect what our opinions are. Many Americans, like yourself, would like to start a grassroots movement using the membership of the Special Operations Association, and Special Forces Associations, and all their friends, simply to recognize that Americans support our troops. We need to inform the local VFW’s and American Legion, our local press, local TV, and continue carrying the message to the national levels as we start to get this going. Our idea of showing our solidarity and support for our troops is starting Friday, and continuing on each and every Friday, until this is over, that every RED - blooded American who supports our young men and women, WEAR SOMETHING RED.
Word of mouth, press, TV — let’s see if we can make the United States, on any given Friday, a sea of RED much like a home football game at a university.
If every one of our memberships shares this with other acquaintances, fellow workers, friends, and neighbors, I guarantee that it will not be long before the USA will be covered in RED - and make our troops know there are many people thinking of their well-being. You will feel better all day Friday when you wear RED!
Let’s get the word out and lead by example; wear RED on Fridays.
Please forward this to everyone you know!!
Wear RED on Fridays. SUPPORT OUR TROOPS! WE LIVE IN THE LAND OF THE FREE, BECAUSE OF THE BRAVE. FOR US, THEIR BLOOD RUNS RED!! GOD BLESS AMERICA.
