Chain of fools
There are many annoyances on the web, and one which really winds me up is email chain letters.
I received one last month which was sent to me (and nine other people) from a friend of ours. The letter sounded authentic enough, and spoke about a boy suffering from cancer who wanted to be in the Guinness Book of Records for having the largest collection of compliment slips in the world. There was a London address included to send your compliment slip to, and you were also asked to pass on the email to ten of your friends.
Unbelievably this hoax is now twenty years old, and the ‘little boy’ has been declared clear of cancer for the last eighteen of them. Goodness knows how many letters have been sent to the address in London. There’s more info on this hoax, and variations derived from it at the Guardian’s website - click here to take a look.
There have been some classics over the years, here’s a few of my personal favourites:
- Bill Gates is sharing his fortune
- Good Luck
- Bloody Mary Curse (my favourite – forward this email OR YOU WILL DIE!! Nice!)
- Irish Friendship
So what’s so bad about them? Well, for a start along with spam mail they simply clog up the internet and slow everything down. It’s the classic, tell two friends, they tell two of their friends situation, and before you know it you’ve been personally responsible for a few thousand pointless emails flying around the web for no reason. Most importantly, what you have just done is added your email address to an ever expanding list which is just waiting to be collected and used to send you information about online casinos and viagra.
Generally, the best bet is to avoid them and don’t add to the already huge amount of internet traffic which is basically useless. If you are not sure then use Google and search for the title of the letter. It will more than likely turn up as a scam, and you won’t feel half as daft as you would when your friends tell you you’ve been fooled!
