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Manual Spam…What A Nuisance
By Bloggaman | April 11, 2008
When I am not blogging, I am a manager in an IT organization at a large university in the midwest. I have been using computers for most of my life, thanks to my dad, so I have seen enough. It never fails to make me laugh everytime I get the emails from people that have been circulating about the Internet for years. What people don’t realize is they are spammers.
They aren’t in the same category as the large groups that take over PC’s to send out there trash emails, but they are close. They do basically the same thing, flood inboxes with stupid emails because they think what they are reading is actually real.
What makes it worse is that people don’t stop and think of the old adage, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
I think the best example of this is the email that says Bill Gates will pay you money if you just send on the email. It is now being sent around with AOL as the payor but the email is the same. If you have never seen this email please go to Snopes right now and read about it.
OK, first of all, let me say this. This kind of goes back to my article from yesterday about Get Rich Quick Schemes. You might be able to make money by forwarding emails but the money will not be coming from Microsoft or AOL and if you are making money, it is likely illegal in some way.
Now, if you aren’t in for making money there is also some manual spam out there that will tug at your heart strings. The other day I received the email titled “Slow Dance”. It is supposedly a poem written by a terminally ill girl that is then forwarded by a Doctor.
Now a terminally ill girl might be enough to make someone forward it but if that isn’t enough they add a bonus to the bottom of the message. It mentions that the American Cancer Society will give three cents for each name on the email. Well now you most certainly will forward it. After all, it is a good cause right? Ok, it is a sweet story and how could anyone not pass it on? Because it isn’t real people. Again, check out Snopes for more information.
The poem wasn’t written by a little girl, it was actually written by David L. Weatherford. The girl is fictitious and the Doctor didn’t forward it, although he is real. So if you feel you need to share this email, instead of sharing a touching story, you are a manual spammer.
One of the other common forms of manual spam I see regularly is the Neiman Marcus cookie recipe. If you haven’t seen this one I have included it below:
“Here’s what happened. My Aunt Cynthia was having lunch at Neiman Marcus with my cousin. For dessert, they had these delicious cookies and my aunt asked the waitress for the recipe. The waitress said they the recipe sold for “two fifty.” My Aunt thought that meant $2.50 said OK. But when she got her bill they charged her $250. She was furious but they wouldn’t refund her money. So in revenge, she’s giving away the recipe to anyone who wants it.”
Again, a good story, sounds believable but yet again, is untrue. People like the story so much that they pass it on to everyone in their address book. It makes the rounds and you eventually see it 10 times in a year. Have you passed it on before? If so, you are a manual spammer.
Now I realize that many people are new to computers and they will all need to learn as we all do, but for those that get the emails on a daily basis they tend to get old. I am just trying to help educate those that may be new to computing.
As a good rule of thumb, if you get an email that looks too good to be true, it likely is. If you have a question, check out Snopes.com. Search on the email subject line or some part of it and you will likely find the email listed. They can tell you if the story is true or false and the origin. Snopes is a great resource so please use it before you manual spam the ones you love.
Topics: Email |
