2009-11-03

The joys of e-mail

I got this e-mail today from a person that was once a friend. Now, more of an acquaintance. Anyway. I haven't heard from her in like more than a year and now two e-mails have dropped into my inbox in less than a month. Me, like most other people, would think something along the lines of "Cool! An e-mail from a long lost friend!" And I did. Think so that is. Until I read the actual e-mails.

The first one was the old fake virus warning about the Hallmark e-cards. *sigh* I thought that one expired it's sell by-date like a year or two ago. Apparently not. So I replied that this is a hoax and that there is nothing to worry about. I thought about sending a Hallmark e-card, but I didn't. Maybe I should have.

The second one I got today was one of those even older "send this to XX number of friends within XX minutes and something you wanted for ages will become yours". Ha! Yeah right. There are many varieties of this one. Everything from sending it to three of your closest friends to 20 of the same and that something good will happen to avoiding disaster. Why people spread this garbage is beyond my abilities, but apparently they do. The probability of something good happening by clogging up other people's inboxes with junk like this is about the same as me winning the lottery without buying a ticket. What will happen is that you will have lots and lots of annoyed friends.

So everyone reading this: If there is a virus warning, take the 30 seconds needed to confirm it before sending it to me. I don't forward such warnings without at least trying to verify them first. Never, under any circumstances send e-mails of the kind "send this to 20 of your closest friends and something good will happen/to avoid disaster".

And for everyone who does not send junk to me, I thank you of all my heart for sparing me irritation and wasted energy.

Nina

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