Scams/hoaxes vs. human pride

[Ilander]

Yeah, my friends sign me up for spam for free t-shirts and ipods...

Thank goodness they don't use my official emails for it, though...I can just tolerate getting spam on my hotmail account.

[armageddon272]

I have a close friend who signed up for a "X CDs for a dollar" ad. Before then I didn't even know that those still existed.

[Cloudbringer]

Oh yes! This annoys me no end! I have a few well meaning relatives who forward less obvious fraud-type stuff that's really chainmail spam but still pretty aggravating to sift through.

I've got my family email going into a special folder and I'll see that I have mail from my stepmom or sister in law and be excited, thinking it's news or photos of our new nephew and his sister or what-have-you and then....it's one of those silly 'if you love yourself and me, send this to 20 people in the next ten minutes or we won't have good luck' kind of things... ARGH! I hate that stuff! And why is it that the ones who send it seem to feel they must send EVERY one of them that comes to their mailboxes on to you? And then you get no real mail at all from them, just junk/spam/chainmail! PFFFFFFFFFFT!

Ahem... uh, Larry, good topic! LOL!

*goes off to find some bunnies in a field or other sweet thing to think about in order to get the fuming factor lowered, after remembering how much of that 'spam-chainmail' she just cleared out this week*

[Timber Loftis]

Well, they don't get nearly as mad at me for snopes-ing the spam/scam as they do for snopes-ing their polemico emails as to soldiers, the war, and other political issues.

[Cerek]

All I can say is "Amen" to the sentiments expressed by Cloudy and Larry. I have a friend (and former co-worker) who will occasionally send the "Good Luck"-style spams to me and (apparantly) everybody else in her address book. I've lost count of how many times I've sent a "Reply All" with a link to Snopes exposing the email for the spam that it is.

The number of spams from her has decreased, but just when I think she has finally caught on to these scams, I get another one from her.


BTW Larry, you haven't shared the story behind you're opening post yet.

[ 11-08-2005, 06:08 AM: Message edited by: Cerek ]

[Larry_OHF]

Originally posted by Cerek: BTW Larry, you haven't shared the story behind you're opening post yet.

Oh...well...the only thing left to tell is of the response I received to my e-mail, where I sent her (my father's wife...not my mom) the snopes links and told her to be careful with things she receives in e-mails. (I of course) chose the option "reply to all and sent the same warning to all whom she had included in her initial sending. They had a right to be made aware as well.

Her response was Well, just because you think its not real does not make you right and you should not have sent your reply to everybody.

[Cloudbringer]

ROTFL! Well, Larry, it isn't your fault she won't believe it's a hoax, so I guess if she gets taken to the cleaners, you did your best and maybe some of the others on the reply list won't be taken in!

She might have to get burned to realize it's not gold, it's spam-fraud!

[Bungleau]

Sorry to hear that your dad's wife took that approach, Larry. Some people insist on believing that urban legends are true, in spite of all the evidence to the contrary.

I will note that I've stopped replying to everyone when someone sends me a UL or hoax. I reply to the person who sent it to me, and encourage them to let everyone else know. Lets 'em save a little face, sometimes...

The only exception would be if they directly passed along a scam that looked particularly believable.

For some reason, my mom doesn't send me any more of those...

[robertthebard]

Originally posted by Kakero: Count yourself lucky Larry. You don't have any family members or relatives who would say " Buy this or else we cut off our ties! "

Nobody in my family actually wears ties, so I'm safe. My mom does tend to forward me that kind of stuff, mainly the chain letters/luck kind of things. I said something to her about it once, but...I have a very good delete button, and I'm not afraid to use it.

[Cloudbringer]

I do alot of deleting of stuff too! LOL FINALLY told my sis-in-law that it would be nice to get REAL mail from her instead of multiple chain-letters but she still forwards alot of them and to make matters worse, my m-i-l, who gets 'em from her, will sometimes forward them to me as well! Oh and my hubby gets his OWN copies of it all! LOL *grips desk to avoid tearing any more hair out* I love my family, I really do...but sheesh, stop sending me JUNK! LOL!