[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: Kelsey Brooke Jones message is no longer relevant



My hunch is that these stories originate with those angelic beings who materialize
in moving vehicles just long enough to deliver prophetic messages. I must be right;
after all, everyone has heard of this happening, right?

My second hunch is that these guys do double duty as the well-known "men in black"
and that they travel around in black helicoptors.

Best wishes,

Thomas Berry, Archivist (whose tongue is so firmly in cheek he looks like a squirrel
gathering seeds for winter!)
Historical Construction Equipment Association
16623 Liberty Hi Road
Bowling Green, Ohio 43402
419-352-5616
tberry@wcnet.org


robh@WOODBRIDGE.COM wrote:

> Sorry Folks,
>
> The message which you just received, which was kindly passed along with honest
> intent , concerning Kelsey Brooke Jones is no longer relevant.  The child was
> missing for only a few hours, therefore, forwarding is no longer a service.
> Read attached newspaper story about this message and others which take on a life
> of their own.
>
> Rob Hamilton, Archivist
> robh@woodbridge.com
>
> PERSONAL TECH column.
> SIFTING OUT THE E-HOAXES REPLYING TO THIS E-MAIL WILL HELP END
> WORLD HUNGER. A LITTLE GIRL WILL GET 3 CENTS FOR CANCER
> TREATMENT FOR EACH PERSON WHO RECEIVES AN E-MAIL. OPENING A
> MESSAGE THAT SAYS 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY' WILL CAUSE YOUR COMPUTER TO
> COMMIT HARI-KARI.
>
> DAN HANSON and BOB COPPEDGE
>
> The Plain Dealer Cleveland, OH
> FINAL / ALL
> 04/10/2000, Page 6C
> (Copyright (c) The Plain Dealer 2000)
>
> Bill Gates will send you $1,000 for replying to this e-mail message. Tell all
> your friends so they can
> get rich too.
>
> A boy in England suffering from leukemia wants to appear in the Guinness Book of
> World Records
> for getting the most e-mail. Please send him a note.
>
> Reply to this message to get the secret Mrs. Fields cookie recipe from a
> disgruntled former
> employee.
>
> We have a plan to ensure world peace. Send us $100 to help.
>
> Sound familiar? Pranks, cons and those false but plausible stories called urban
> legends have been
> around for ages. E-mail has picked up the pace at which they spread from person
> to person and has
> produced its own categories of phony stories.
>
> People are often eager to believe these tales. They may be entertaining, or they
> may tug on the heart
> strings. And they're often reported as having really happened - to a friend of
> the storyteller's cousin
> or some other vague friend or relation.
>
> Mostly, false messages are accepted because they offer information that is
> either presumed to be
> true or that many people want to believe is true.
>
> What makes people want to believe? Greed helps.
>
> For example, you're probably aware of the recent mega-merger between America
> Online and Time
> Warner. So when an e-mail message shows up saying "Due to this merger an
> unprecedented
> opportunity has arisen," you may be gullible. You know that the merger is true,
> and you'd sure like to
> get something out of it for yourself.
>
> Most urban legends are pretty harmless, but there are malicious messages. Some
> deliberately
> present false information in an attempt to get your money or otherwise hurt you;
> others may trick you
> into launching viruses that will damage your computer.
>
> Take one e-mail making the rounds. It says Bill Gates will give you money if you
> forward the e-mail
> to enough people. Maybe you have your doubts, but you figure it couldn't hurt to
> send the message
> to 10 friends - just in case.
>
> What you don't realize is that the addresses of those friends also end up
> getting collected by a
> company that sells them to mailing- list brokers. Your friends soon get flooded
> with junk e-mail.
>
> The original sender can use various techniques (setting the e- mail to send
> "blind" carbon copies,
> hidden coding, etc.) to capture the entire list. Another trick is to have an
> "unsubscribe option." Once
> you reply, the sender knows he has a legitimate address to sell.
>
> How can you protect yourself? Remember that whatever an e-mail message says,
> whatever sources
> it claims, you're at the mercy of the person who sent you the message and the
> person who typed it in
> the first place.
>
> The same goes for Web sites. Anyone can post a lie on a Web page; being on the
> Internet doesn't
> make it true.
>
> If you're considering responding to an unsolicited message - particularly one
> that asks for money -
> always check with legitimate authorities first. Does the e-mail say some child
> in Denver needs help?
> If the message lists contact information, be sure to check it out. If there is
> no contact information
> provided, be skeptical.
>
> Of course, the message about ensuring world peace by sending $100 to Dan and Bob
> is true.
> Forward that to everyone you know.
>
> Missing child
>
> The story: The parents of Kelsey Brooke Jones have sent out this photo of their
> young daughter,
> missing from her Minnesota home.
>
> The trick: Another appeal to the heart, and it seems so helpful to pass this
> plea on to all of your
> friends.
>
> The truth: Authorities from Missing Children Minnesota confirm that the girl was
> missing - for less
> than two hours.
>
> Her parents apparently never sent out a follow-up message, or if they did it
> couldn't catch up with all
> the copies of the original, which are still being forwarded.
>
> Many similar cases exist, and undoubtedly some parents of missing children are
> using e-mail to
> spread the word.
>
> But before you send the message to your friends, check the e-mail out. Does it
> have contact
> information for the local authorities that you can check?
>
> A quick search on the Internet shows many sites run by local governments and
> others with lists of
> confirmed missing people. These efforts are now well-organized; check with the
> National Center for
> Missing and Exploited Children at
>
> http://www.ncmec.org/
>
> or call 1-800-843-5678.
>
> Free Disney vacation
>
> The story: A message from Walt Disney Jr. tells you that his company is
> partnering with Microsoft to
> test some software. If the message is forwarded to enough people (13,000 in the
> message we've
> seen), you will receive either $5,000 or a free trip to Orlando.
>
> The tricks: It lists names you've heard of - Disney, Microsoft. It has a sense
> of urgency, and it plays
> on greed.
>
> The truth: Walt Disney never had a son. It becomes even less believable from
> there. Software
> companies have very rigid procedures for their beta test process and rarely, if
> ever, would solicit
> candidates from the general public for a test.
>
> Appeal from Jessica Mydek
>
> The story: Jessica - or some other name - is a child with a major health
> problem. Businesses have
> agreed to donate 3 cents to the American Cancer Society and other sponsors every
> time the e-mail
> is forwarded.
>
> The trick: An appeal to the heart, and the idea that sending an e- mail doesn't
> cost anything so
> there's no harm in trying.
>
> The truth: There never was a Jessica Mydek (it's a made-up name mimicking a
> crude slang term,
> which may be part of the creator's thrill). Similar appeals use different names.
> Sometimes the
> companies supposedly involved are named, sometimes they're anonymous, and the
> donation amount
> can vary.
>
> 5 cents surcharge on e-mail
>
> The story: Congress is going to impose a tax on e-mail if you don't act now!
> Click to send in your
> protest! The message refers to Bill 602P, and often a lawyer named Richard
> Stepp.
>
> The trick: Outrage at politicians is a powerful emotion, particularly when
> they're accused of going
> after your money. Plus it doesn't take much effort to participate by firing off
> an angry message and
> forwarding the original complaint to your friends.
>
> The truth: No such bill, no such lawyer. There have been some attempts to change
> the way calls to
> Internet service providers are billed. But all those attempts, through the
> Federal Communications
> Commission, have failed.
>
> This is different from the issue of sales tax on purchases made over the
> Internet, which is being
> batted around in Washington.
>
> Food for surfing
>
> The story: Want to help cure world hunger? Just click here, and companies will
> donate money.
>
> The trick: Another variation of the sick child appeal.
>
> The truth: This one could be true, if it points you to a site that has the
> support of companies including
> Sprint and ProFlowers:
>
> http://www.thehungersite.com
>
> The promise is that clicking a button will generate a donation to the United
> Nations World Food
> Program. (Advertisers normally would pay a fee for space on a Web page.
> Companies that
> advertise on this site pay the fee directly to the food program.)
>
> Before you believe similar appeals, investigate the legitimacy of the site
> yourself. One easy way is to
> click on the link to a sponsor. Sprint's link on The Hunger Site, for example,
> takes you to its
> corporate Web site, which has more information on the sponsorship. If all the
> links on a site are to
> other pages on the same site (the addresses all start with the same words, like
> a link from
>
> www.phonyphony.com
>
> going to
>
> www.phonyphony.com/sprint),
>
> send an e-mail to one of the supposed sponsors (check a search engine like Yahoo
> to find its home
> page) asking for confirmation.
>
> Needle in the ball pit
>
> The story: A 3-year-old boy from Texas, Kevin Archer, was playing in the ball
> pit at a McDonald's
> after lunch with his mother. Kevin complained that he was hurt but his mother
> could find nothing
> wrong.
>
> Later that night, he went into convulsions and died. A doctor found a broken-off
> hypodermic needle
> with heroin stuck in his skin.
>
> The trick: It plays on the fears of most parents about what could happen to
> their children, as well as
> worries about the dangers of the modern world. Variations on this story include
> snakes in a Burger
> King play area and razor blades on a theme park's water slide.
>
> The truth: There is no Kevin Archer; there were no medical cases like this in
> Texas. McDonald's
> released a statement reporting that "there have been no such incidents ever
> reported at any
> McDonald's." In addition, "There has never been an article in any newspaper
> regarding the rumor."
>
> Experts suggest that stories like this are often started by people who have had
> some kind of scare
> themselves, however mild, and want to make sure others are on their guard.
>
> Virus warnings
>
> The story: Look out! If you open an e-mail entitled "Happy Birthday," your hard
> drive will crash;
> your financial information will be shared with the entire population of Canada,
> and you will be
> forever labeled as a John Tesh groupie. All because of a nasty computer virus
> embedded in the
> message.
>
> The trick: Computer viruses do exist, so you know this could be true. And we've
> all heard about
> what they can do to our computers, so this plays to our fears.
>
> The truth: This one's tough. There are viruses, and some of them are slipped
> into e-mail messages
> that have deceptive titles.
>
> But some of these warnings are phony warnings, and if you keep bombarding your
> friends by
> sending on every warning ... you may not have as many friends anymore.
>
> It gets back to anti-virus basics. Buy software that tracks and removes viruses,
> and go to the
> software's Web site for frequent updates. Don't open files sent to you by
> strangers that have an
> ".exe" on the end of the name.
>
> Nowadays, executable files can be hidden in Web pages or other code, such as a
> Microsoft Word
> document, and Macintosh computers can be as vulnerable as others.
>
> Check the veracity of warnings by looking at the list of fake announcements at
>
> http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/hoax.html
>
> DRAWING by DORA STANEFF-CLINE / PLAIN DEALER ARTIST
>
> Copyright
>
>   ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> © 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List!

To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to listserv@listserv.muohio.edu
      In body of message:  SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname
                    *or*:  UNSUB ARCHIVES
To post a message, send e-mail to archives@listserv.muohio.edu

Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at
     http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html

Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>