E-mail, chat, & VoIP forum: Poll: What do you do when you receive a chain letter?

To me it makes a big difference 2( who sent it, and 2) what is the content. If it is from one of my IT friends who has a similar politcal philosophy, I may very well forward it, BUT< if it is from one I know to be uninformed or lax in their security opr it represents a topic I don't support (of which they may be a number) I put it in that little round file that is so handy, lol. Love that delete button! And I'm very serious about MY security! I have a good , complete security suite that runs al, the time. I have several excellent cleaner programs (MalwareBytes, Lavesoft and others. I routinely do regular computer maintenance, disk clean, registry clean (I add and remove programs frequently to test them), defarg (I'm running XP Pro but will be upgrading to Win7 Ultimate 64 bit this summer). In addition to that I run full security scans with t least 3 products every month. I'm satisfied I have a clean computer! I built it. I maintain it regularly. And if I see any signs of possible malware, I do it anyway! I keep a clean and happy, fast computer, as do my IT friends. Incidentally, I learned to turn a computer on by myself in July '06. I month in I downloaded the SP2 for XP because I wanted to run streaming videos. Unknown to me, installing SP2 screwed up ones Windows. MS verified my Windows so I could install, the Sp2s. 3 days later <S shut me off the 'net, saying my Windows were pirated. 2 weeks prior, MS knew of this problem with their anti-piracy tool but still did it. I had to buy new XP Pro, $160 at the time, on sale. Now 5 years later I'n building them, doing ALL my own troubleshooting and repair, plus I'm fixing my friends computers. I'm thinking of hanging out a shingle!

Excellent point!

I agree, forwards are junk, impersonal junk. They're no way to keep up communication, and a very poor substitute for it. Even the viral video links drive me crazy. You know those Youtube videos that tend to hit your inbox from all directions because it's trending on the Daily Tube or something? Yes, that little kid is amazing for reciting the alphebet all the way through at only 18 months old. But for gosh sakes, when you get that same link from about 7 breathlessly amazed forwards within two days, and then another lot two days later, and I don't even know the darn kid in real life, seriously, people... Photoshopped cute animal pictures and animations doing sickly cute things, no thanks. Sappy tear-jerking stories or poems, no thanks. They're all such manipulative junk and I'd rather my friends got together with me in person to watch some movie or TV show we have in common than send me a goopy chain letter that's designed to yank your emotions hard so you'll do its bidding and spread it around, adding to the zillions of copies of it already out there. Don't even get me started on political and religious chain letters. I'm a Christian and get really offended over religious exploitive fraudulent chain letters, and wish more Christians would wake up and stop letting themselves get used like that. Sick/dying kid hoaxes - get me in a room with whoever started those, and only one of us would come out again, and it wouldn't be them. What kind of sick...? And for all I know, the same people who started the Amy Bruce dying kid hoax could very well be behind that "I Picked You To Be Blessed" chain letter with all the cute puppies and bunnies, the saccharin poem, the tear-jerking story that claims to be true but really isn't, and topped off with a few scriptures thrown strategically in, plus a "Pass this on and brighten your friends' day, if you don't, God will deny you." crap.

Lol That "I Picked You" is just one of many such chain letters I really sound off about on my site. I even made an audio rant on it but lost the file since getting a better microphone, and Youtube. But seriously, "I picked you" For what? Oh, yeah, for *drumroll* getting all this junkmail! Not something truly friend-like, such as an invite out for coffee or something. Just another lousy chain letter. And the line "Let's see Satan stop this one" It's like - uh, people, did you not realize he started this blasted stuff? Yes. Those things get me right ticked off, and it's great to express oneself about it, and read and enjoy others' similar expressions and feelings. Yknow, I don't even fit in on many discussion boards where people vent about this stuff. This is the best thread I've come across in a long while, it's good and active, and ongoing, and, not full of the sort of stuff that passes for discussion on the Snopes message boards. Hehe, I'm putting up a link to this thread on my own site. And the "I Picked You" is definitely cause for a headdesk, but I've seen some that were even worse. They just burn, they really do.

I'm liable to check it out at snopes.com. Especially if it's one of those "poor little kid" or school project chain letters. It's sometimes amusing to find school project chain letters that have been going around since 1996.

Anyway, if there's anything on snopes.com, I copy the url & inform the sender (only), also suggesting they check these things before sending on. After a few responses like that, they leave me off the distribution list.

But no, I never send them on. Let me qualify that -- the only people I send them on to are the people who are constantly sending that crap.

Marsha

A similar thing happened to me, but it was a hoax. My niece's address book was hacked into, and spoof emails are still now being sent out to everyone from her book. I phoned her as soon as I saw what it was. She immediately closed that account and opened a new one with a different email provider. Then from her new account she sent out an email to everyone, giving her new address, and warning them not to open anything from her old address.

It's not that difficult to hack into someone else's email account, and it happens fairly regularly. If you're ever doubtful or suspicious about an email, always check the internet headers before opening it - look for the Return Path, and other information given in the headers. This isn't foolproof, but it cuts out a lot of well-disguised spam and spoofs.

If it's a chain letter that I can send a debunk back with a link to a site, I'll do that. But for those that don't seem to be archived on hoax-busting sites, I'll usually sound off on my own site about them, but give the contact who sent the chain letter a caution not to send forwards, because they can't determine what sort of friend you are or how many true friends you have etc. Even for the extremely rare case when a chain fwd contains a true story, I'll still reply with a link to an article about it on a hoax-busting site.

I've found out that some people go on sending junk to others. Sure, they leave me off their junk lists, but they continue sending crud to other people who are too timid to say anything about it or else are just as easily fooled, or simply indifferent about it. That seriously ticks me off at these people. And then there are some of the new people to me, who start out having great conversations, sending notes back and forth, but then, the inevitable happens - they start sending forwards. at that point, except for sending back debunks when possible, I can pretty much consider the friendship over.

I fully appreciate that there are many people who enjoy sending out jokes, etc. I in no way like to interfere with another's right to happiness. But this behavior, if not illegal, is surely the next best thing. I have been dealing with one indiscriminate mailer for three + years, and two email accounts. Family politics keep the lid on it, but one member has given up her email completely because she can't use it the way she wants without MailHell from getting her address. Now the person without the convenience of email is a retired and disabled person herself.
I admire your patience with your friend, but I don't think that you have had this interfere with your right to happiness. There is a reason people hate this stuff.
Maybe an analogy. This has all the charm of having your door bell ditched every time you sit down to get something done. Read your mail, got 15 min.s, ding-dong, get back 10 min.s ding-dong....
I really wish it didn't irritate so much, but it's entertainment and a feeling of popularity, at the risk and expense of others.

You sound like me. I custom built my computer and run windows 7 on it and a couple of virus programs that are compatible with each other and what one misses the other catches and I do regular maintenance on it to keep it happy. I just did a defrag even though it was only 2% fragmented. I also fix friends computers. I just did one that was loaded with viruses and I had to go online to find programs for certain ones but as fast as I would remove them more would pop on because it had several trojan downloaders on it and my internet is always connected. Without thinking I put it on my network and got a call from my provider that the viruses were trying to access there servers and threatened to shut me down if I did not fix it. I explained what happened and took it off my network and used linksys wireless unsecure so it would not affect my network and had to go through all the computers on it to ensure no viruses got on the rest. There were so many viruses I ended up having to wipe it and reload it. When I gave it back it had virus protection on it. Her virus protection had exspired and was not working because she had not renewed it. Her second computer the video card went and it was an onbaord card so I put a new one in the slot and gave it back working like a charm.

My email got out because of a business who was hacked and they got all our emails. I got a notice from them letting me know but now my spam folder fills up fast and some come to my inbox and I have to send them to the spam folder. All this because a company did not make sure their systems were secure.

Crissyd2 Do You want to be me friend? Anyway your friends are lucky. I killed my first computer (worth more than my car) and didn't trust anyone after $200... needs.... $150... needs...Now I take care of of my machine. Regular maintanance, this isn't a toaster.
Crazy Great point, preview, I also have Smart-Screen that can be run before opening. Still not perfect, and still takes time, but those once in awhile senders aren't that bad.
I have to stop watching this post, the grass is growing.

To) crazyquiltmom. I am only an internet 'Newbie'. When you right click and ask for the email senders address, How do you know, just by looking at it wether its by a 'legitimate sender' or not ?
On 'Slimbrowser you can get the same result by just hovering the 'hand' over the email senders address in the left hand column............... (Before it gives the incoming messages title)

Thanx,
Chris