From: Kathy B.
Category: Urban legend
Date: 25 Jan 2000
Time: 09:02:45
Remote Name: 134.186.108.48
Send this same response to her EVERY time. Maybe if she doesn't have to go to a Web site first, she'll actually read it. It's from Patrick Crispin's Urban Legend Combat Kit at http://www.netsquirrel.com/combatkit. It's OK to use as long as you dn't edit it as it's copyrighted. It covers all the bases--free goodies, dying children, pop up jokes.
Thank you for forwarding me the most recent "send this email to all of your friends and something great will happen" story. Unfortunately, the story you sent me is yet another in a long string of Internet hoaxes. I have attached an excerpt from an article about this type of hoax I recently read on the Internet TOURBUS.
By the way, if you do not yet subscribe to TOURBUS, I strongly recommend that you do. TOURBUS is a free, semi-weekly Internet newsletter that tells you about the latest Internet sites and helps you debunk the latest Internet urban legends. I have included TOURBUS subscription information at the bottom of this message.
----------------------------------------------- Fun With Pattern Recognition -- 14 October 1999 (Updated 18 December 1999) -----------------------------------------------
There is an entire family of urban legends I want to squish in one fell swoop. Please listen to this carefully: NO ONE IS EVER GOING TO GIVE YOU *ANYTHING* FOR FORWARDING AN EMAIL MESSAGE TO ALL OF YOUR FRIENDS. PERIOD. I don't care what you might have heard from other people. YOU CAN'T GET SOMETHING FOR NOTHING, and you certainly can't get something for simply forwarding an email to all of your friends.
With that said, you'd be surprised at how many people still believe that these silly "forward an email to all of your friends and something great will happen" hoaxes are true. What follows is the truth about many of the 'email forwarding' hoaxes I have received over the past couple of weeks. Play close attention to these -- you'll notice a distinct pattern:
- Abercrombie & Fitch is *NOT* going to give you a free gift certificate for forwarding an email message to all of your friends.
- Bath & Body Works is *NOT* going to give you a free gift certificate for forwarding an email message to all of your friends.
- Columbia House is *NOT* going to send you 10 free CDs for forwarding an email message to all of your friends.
- The Gap is *NOT* going to give you free cargo pants and Hawaiian shirts for forwarding an email message to all of your friends. [This one is my favorite!]
- The Guinness Book of World Records is *NOT* going to add your name to their book for forwarding an email message to all of your friends.
- Honda is *NOT* going to give you a free car for forwarding an email message to all of your friends.
- IBM is *NOT* going to give you a free computer for forwarding an email message to all of your friends.
- J. Crew is *NOT* going to send you a $50 gift certificate for forwarding an email message to all of your friends.
- M&M's is *NOT* going to give you a free case of M&Ms for forwarding an email message to all of your friends.
- The newly merged Microsoft and AOL is *NOT* going to give you money for forwarding an email message to all of your friends [and, even sillier, not only have Microsoft and AOL *NOT* merged -- US antitrust laws would prohibit such a merger -- but Microsoft and AOL are BITTER ENEMIES!]
- Microsoft is *NOT* going to give you free money for forwarding an email message to all of your friends.
- Microsoft is also *NOT* going to give you a free copy of Windows 98 for forwarding an email message to all of your friends.
- Microsoft and Disney are *NOT* going to give you a free trip to Disney World for forwarding an email message to all of your friends.
- The Miller Brewing Company is *NOT* going to give you a free six-pack of beer for forwarding an email message to all of your friends.
- Nike is *NOT* going to give you free shoes for forwarding an email message to all of your friends.
- Old Navy is *NOT* going to give you a free $25 gift card for forwarding an email message to all of your friends.
- Some unnamed billionaire is *NOT* going to make a donation to a dying child in return for your forwarding an email message to all of your friends.
- Some cancer or disease society is *NOT* going to make adonation to a dying child in return for your forwarding an email message to all of your friends. [In fact, every one of the Net's "dying kid" stories is an outright hoax ... NOT ONE has been true.]
- Some stranger is not going to magically cause a really neat movie to pop-up on your screen in return for your forwarding an email message to all of your friends.
Did you notice an underlying theme in all of these? FOLKS, NO ONE IS EVER GOING TO GIVE YOU *ANYTHING* FOR SIMPLY FORWARDING AN EMAIL MESSAGE TO ALL OF YOUR FRIENDS! (Gee, where did we hear THAT before?) :P
What should you do if you receive an "email forwarding" message that doesn't appear on our list? Should you forward the message to all of your friends on the off chance that it just might be true? Of course not. Regardless of how the message is written, it is still a hoax. And, unfortunately, one of the prices of Net citizenship is vigilance -- you have to be constantly watching for old hoaxes and urban legends masquerading as new.
One way to keep up with Net hoaxes and urban legends, especially the myriad of email forwarding hoaxes, is to bookmark and frequently visit both [ http://urbanlegends.about.com/ ] and [ http://www.snopes.com/ ].
The other way to keep up with Net hoaxes and urban legends is to start looking for patterns in these hoaxes. All email virus warning hoaxes follow the same pattern. All "forward an email to all of your friends and something great will happen" hoaxes also follow a pattern, as do all of the "dying kid" hoaxes. Train yourself to recognize these patterns and you will become a valuable Net asset, able to protect yourself from future hoaxes and, more importantly, able to share your Net-hoax-busting knowledge with your friends, family, and co-workers.
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