Things you need to know about e-mails, etc.
1. Big companies don't do business via chain letters. Bill Gates is not
giving you $1000, and Disney is not giving you a free vacation.
Hershey's is not sending you free M&M's. There is no baby food company
issuing class-action checks. Procter and Gamble is not part of a satanic
cult or scheme, and its logo is not satanic. You can relax; there is no
need to pass it on "just in case it's true." Furthermore, just because
someone said in a message, four generations back, that "we checked it out
and it's legit," does not actually make it true.
2. There is no kidney theft ring in New Orleans. No one is waking up in
a bathtub full of ice, even if a friend of a friend swears it happened to
his or her cousin. If you are insistent on believing the kidney-theft
ring stories, please see: http://www.urbanlegends.com/medical/ Click on
"Organ Theft" and then on "New Orleans Debunk." And I quote: "After an
investigation into these allegations, the New Orleans Police Department
has found them to be COMPLETELY WITHOUT MERIT AND WITHOUT FOUNDATION. "
So no one has had their kidneys stolen in New Orleans. Not even your
friend's cousin.
3. Neiman Marcus doesn't really sell a $200 cookie recipe. And even if
they do, we all have it. And even if you don't, you can get a copy at:
http://www.bl.net/forwards/cookie.html Then, if you make the recipe,
decide
the cookies are that awesome, feel free to pass the recipe on.
4. If the latest NASA rocket disaster(s) DID contain plutonium that went
to particulate over the eastern seaboard, do you REALLY think this
information would reach the public via an AOL chain letter?
5. There is no "Good Times" virus. In fact, you should never, ever, ever
forward any email containing any virus warning unless you first confirm
that an actual site of an actual company that actually deals with
viruses. Try: http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/ and even then, don't
forward it.
We don't care. And you cannot get a virus from a flashing IM or email -
you
have to download . . . ya know, like, a FILE!
6. There is no gang initiation plot to murder any motorist who flashes
headlights at another car driving at night without lights.
7. If you're using Outlook, I.E., or Netscape to write email, turn off
the "HTML encoding." Those of us on Unix shells can't read it, and don't
care enough to save the attachment and then view it with a web browser,
since you're probably forwarding us a copy of the Neiman Marcus Cookie
Recipe anyway.
8. If you still absolutely MUST forward that 10th-generation message from
a friend, at least have the decency to trim the eight miles of headers
showing everyone else who's received it over the last 6 months. It sure
wouldn't hurt to get rid of all the " > " that begin each line either.
Besides, if it has gone around that many times we've probably already
seen it.
9. Craig Shergold (or Sherwood, or Sherman, etc.) in England is not dying
of cancer or anything else at this time and would like everyone to stop
sending him their business cards. He apparently is no longer a "little
boy" either.
10. The "Make a Wish" foundation is a real organization doing fine work,
but they have had to establish a special toll free hot line in response
to the large number of Internet hoaxes using their good name and
reputation. It is distracting them from the important work they do.
11. If you are one of those insufferable idiots who forwards anything
that "promises" something bad will happen if you "don't," then something
bad will happen to you if I ever meet you in a dark alley.
12. As a general rule, e-mail "signatures" are easily faked and mean
nothing to anyone with any power to do anything about whatever the
competition is complaining. http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/hoax.html
(P.S. There is no bill pending before Congress that will allow
long-distance companies to charge you for using the Internet. And
Madelyn Murray O'Hare's atheist organization does not have a petition
#2493 pending before Congress. #2493 was in 1974 by someone else)...
Bottom Line . . .composing e-mail or posting something on the Net is as
easy as writing on the walls of a public restroom. Don't automatically
believe it until it's proven false . . . ASSUME it's false, unless there
is
proof that it's true.
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