Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Forwarded email - hoaxes

Forwarded trash in my email inbox from people who really should have enough brain to know better, is one of my pet peeves. These include emails that promise big freebies or cash if you forward the email to all your friends or a specified number of people; bogus health warnings etcetera.

I urge people to read about hoax spotting at the two following websites:

How to Spot an Email Hoax

Guide to Recognising Hoaxes

When I receive too-good-to-be-true emails or emails warning about certain products or giving 'alternative' health advice, I generally pick out a few keywords from the text, type them into the Google search box along with the word 'hoax'. If the email is indeed a hoax, a link to the article at urbanlegends or hoaxslayer will show up in the results.

So people please, stop clogging your friends' inboxes with pointless rubbish and do your homework before hitting the forward button. It only takes up 1 minute of your time!

8 comments:

Adventurous Ammena said...

salam, yeh this bothers me too. Im sick of getting totally irrelevant emails that will save the day or kill me there and then, depending on what i do with it. I never forward emails and if i do for cute pics or whatever i always take the 'pass this on to so many ppl and receive..' blurb at the bottom.

seekingtaqwa said...

akh... my inbox is always full of trash and hoaxes...and emails forwarded by other people..drives me insane... I never forward anything..I'm a good girl ;)

Solace said...

Slm

Don't get me started!!

This past week I received 4 of those. What gets to me is that people still believe in the promises that comes with them.

American Muslima Writer said...

Lol thanks for the links to check them. Oh my I still shake my head at some of these e-mails that say if you pass it to three poele only 5 poeple wil love you if you pass it to 14 you're boyfriend will fall in love with you and if you pass it to no one you'll have bad luck forever.....WHAT BS!!!!!!!!!! If I like the content enough to pass it on i remove the BS at the bottom and send that baby along. Also I don't send stuff that is against Islam. I'm always geting this "let an angel bless you" stuff with so called pictures of a lady with wings in white dresses supposed to be an angel and if i liek the message I delete the picture and send it on or re-word it Islamically correct.
I have spell checker and I have Islam-Checker ;) (hmm idea for a post there)
Salam!

Anonymous said...

I just delete...

now we have Islamic email forwards...

Rainbow In The Grey Sky said...

i forwad what i feel may make one smile or useful info but try to avoid trash and that one gets me made about send to many others inc yourself, plz com on!

UmmLayla said...

Ufffff you would think that e-mail was invented for this sole purpose. I hate it. Just keep me out of it I say. But that's what the delete button is for I guess.

Umm Ibrahim said...

Assalaamu alaikum,

Glad to see that there are other people on my wavelength! LOL =)