You get them every day from people you’ve never met and
don’t know. Offers for free iPods,
cheap Rolexes, pharmaceuticals of all kinds.
You know the claims aren’t valid and there’s a cloud behind that silver
lining. So you grit your teeth and turn
on your spam filter and watch the unwanted junk email go down the electronic
drain. You sigh in relief, confident that
you’ve protected yourself from another onslaught of unwanted (and probably untrue)
ads and services.
But then there are the people you know and trust – your
co-workers, your relatives, your friends, and your spouse. People you care for and believe in. People who aren’t out to fleece you or
misinform you. It’s their emails that
have you worried. “Your Cell Phone
Number Will Be Given To Solicitors!"
“Loophole In Tax Laws Lets US Government Legally Take Your Home!" “Latest Terrorist Threat Comes From Infected
Needles In Change Return Slots Of Vending Machines!" “New Virus So Deadly Even Microsoft Can’t Stop It!" Since these emails come from people you
know, they can’t be wrong. So you do
what you feel is your public duty and pass the emails along to your other
family and friends, letting them know the latest dangers of living in our world
so they can better protect themselves and their families. And you pat yourself on the back for being a
responsible adult and sharing the information.
Well, all I can say is:
SHAME ON YOU! YOU’RE PROMOTING A
LIE! STOP IT RIGHT NOW!
Seriously, almost all of the “Urban Legend" emails you
receive come from people you know. How
can you tell what’s true and what’s not?
More importantly, how can you stop from getting them without alienating
everyone you know?
A Legend Is Born
Urban legends come in many sizes and flavors. However, most can be categorized as one of
three general varieties. The first
starts as a story, generally unverifiable, that has a moral. Most of us have heard this one: Boy meets girl boy takes girl on a date
boy runs out of gas on the way to Lover’s Lane boy leaves girl in car while he
goes to get gas girl turns on radio and hears news story about serial killer
with a hook for a hand girl hears scratching noises on the side of the car
which become increasingly louder and more intense boy returns with gas, gasses
up the car, and they go home girl opens her car door and finds a hook hanging
from the outside of the car door handle.
Moral: Don’t go parking with
your boyfriend because “good girls don’t" and you could be punished for your
wanton actions. The morals of more
contemporary stories may be different, but they are there.
The second variety of urban legend is the one that promises
a freebie if you’ll forward the email to all your friends. A company is taking a survey, or testing a
new email tracking service, and if you’ll do what they ask you’ll make all
kinds of money. Or someone has
discovered the “secret recipe" for a world-famous department store’s food item,
and wants your help in passing it on to help shaft the company for poor
customer treatment. Again, the stories
can be of many types, but the end result is that you get something for nothing
more than passing on the information.
The third category for urban legends is the “human interest"
story. These can be about anything or
anyone, and are more informative than anything else. They can be about the best in humanity, or the worst. The bottom line is they’re something you might
see in “People" Magazine, or perhaps “The National Enquirer".
In any case, it’s not so much the type of urban legend as it
is about who sent it to you in the first place. If your spouse, or parents, or kids, sent this to you, well,
then, it must be something serious that needs to get around. Especially in cases where new viruses have
been discovered, or a child has been abducted and needs to be found
immediately, isn’t it best to pass the message on? The prevailing idea seems to be “I’d rather be safe than sorry." In fact, you’ll see that statement on a
number of email messages of this type that come across your desktop.
Separating Truth From Fiction
So do you pass it on?
That depends. If the information
you’ve received is accurate, and somebody’s life is at stake, or somebody could
get hurt, then yes. The bigger question
is this: Is the information
accurate? If it’s not
There are several things you can do when you receive an
email of this type to determine if it’s a legitimate story or just another
urban legend.
Consider the sources. Check to see who the sources are for this information. If a source such as Microsoft, the US
Government, CNN, MSNBC, “USA Today", or any other business conglomerate or
media giant is mentioned, think hard.
Would ANY of these organizations use word-of-mouth (word-of-hand?) email
messages to get out something as serious as what is mentioned in the
message? Absolutely not. They’d use the news media to disperse
information that could affect the general public. Think of it another way:
When was the last time you saw a major story on the news and THEN got an
email asking you to forward the information on? My guess is never. These
types of messages are immediately suspect.
Search the buzzwords. Look for phrases, either in the original story or from previous
recipients that tell you this didn’t come straight from the original
source. “My brother’s cousin’s sister’s
best friend’s uncle’s grocery boy heard about this from his friend’s teacher’s
grandson’s brother’s next-door neighbor, who is a big shot in the military and
has access to all kinds of high-security information" is practically screaming
this is not something to take very seriously.
Identify the urgency. Another red flag is something in the story that tells you to take
action immediately or dire consequences will result. “Already people are sick in hospitals because they didn’t take
this threat seriously. ACT NOW to save
your life and the lives of your loved ones!"
Hmmm…that “ACT NOW" phrase…sounds like those infomercials where if you
don’t call in the next 30 minutes, you won’t get all the junky bonus
merchandise to accompany the 50-piece scrunchy set you don’t really need,
doesn’t it?
Check the Internet.
There are several reputable sources on the Internet you can use to check
the authenticity of these types of stories.
Truthorfiction.com is one
such site two other excellent ones are Snopes.com
and Urban Legends and Folklore. You can look by category, or search by
keywords to find out if the email you got about the government conducting nerve
gas experiments on the citizens in your community is true or not. And if you have a story that they don’t have
listed, you can forward the story to the company, they’ll research it, and add
it to their database.
Stop the Insanity!
So now you know the story you just received is a fake. Where do you go next? It’s not like you can add your boss or your
spouse to your spam filter! (Well, you
can, but there’ll be repercussions for months.
I don’t think you want to go there.)
What I recommend is a simple reply to the sender. Inform him that you’ve done your homework
and the story he sent you is not true.
I usually include the link to the confirmation/denial from one of the
sites listed above, so the sender can see for himself why the story is not
true.
What does this accomplish?
It notifies the sender that what they sent was inaccurate. It’s also a subtle way of saying, “I know
about this stuff, and it’s all junk.
Please don’t send me any more."
Some will take the hint and stop forwarding these messages to you. Others will continue to assume that
everything coming down the Internet pipe is true and continue sending them
on. In those cases, I reply again, except
that this time I do a “Reply to all" so that everybody that received the
message when I did sees my reply. It’s
amazing what peer pressure can do in those cases.
Of course, there’s the possibility that your efforts will
backfire. I have several people now who
forward everything they get in email to me, asking, “Is this legitimate?" So I take a few minutes to check it out and
reply back. Hey, there’s nothing wrong
with your boss thinking you’re the urban legend guru! |
