Do you forward email without checking them for legitimacy?

[Mermaid02]

I got a forward portraying Cindy Sheehan (the war protesting woman whose son was killed in Iraq) in a very unflattering light. While I don't care for her- NONE OF IT IS TRUE. The picture of her with Jesse Jackson makes it worth forwarding... but the accompanying story is false. All it took was about 10 seconds on Snopes.com and there you have it. This drives me NUTS. Anyone with me???

 

[scrump]

This is one of my biggest pet peeves. I usually send back the link to snopes referencing the same story. After a couple of these responses, I've definitely been taken off a lot of distribution lists.

 

[lulugirl]

That bugs the crap out of me!! My mother forwards me anything that winds up in her inbox, the majority of it is nonsense. I respond by sending her the link to www.snopes.com.

 

[Cindyluwho]

I always check to see if they're legitimate. If I'm sent that stupid cookie recipe story one more time heads are gonna roll!!! When I do rec'v one of those fake stories, I hit "reply all" and let everyone know that it's a fake. I also include the link to the site so they can check it out themselves.

 

[Mermaid02]

I always check to see if they're legitimate. If I'm sent that stupid cookie recipe story one more time heads are gonna roll!!! When I do rec'v one of those fake stories, I hit "reply all" and let everyone know that it's a fake. I also include the link to the site so they can check it out themselves.

And those cookies aren't very good either.... although my dog ate a whole batch off the counter once.

 

[dumboiu]

I always check.

 

[cabmom]

I always check to see if they're legitimate. If I'm sent that stupid cookie recipe story one more time heads are gonna roll!!! When I do rec'v one of those fake stories, I hit "reply all" and let everyone know that it's a fake. I also include the link to the site so they can check it out themselves.

I do the same thing. Why can't people just stop forwarding? It's especially annoying when people have just got email and they forward everything they get. It's like I've had email for 10 yrs now, stop with the FORWARDING!

 

[lbgraves]

I don't even open most of that junk. If anyone has just forwarded me a file without even putting it in the body of the email I don't care what it is. It gets deleted right away.

 

[joshsmom]

I always check snopes first and a few times when I have sent the snopes info back to the sender, I have gotten *nasty* responses about how they don't have TIME to look that stuff up. THEN DON'T FORWARD IT TO ME!!!!

 

[MickeyMouseGal]

I never forward anything. That's how I deal with chain emails.

Just curious... was it this story?
http://www.snopes.com/politics/war/sheehangrave.asp

 

[Mermaid02]

That was part of it- the rest was how she gave him up at age 7... which is not true.

 

[Missy1961]

This is one of my biggest pet peeves. I usually send back the link to snopes referencing the same story. After a couple of these responses, I've definitely been taken off a lot of distribution lists.

I do this too. If I get one more email about the "cell phone list" I will scream!

 

[ZipaDeeDooDah]

I got a forward portraying Cindy Sheehan (the war protesting woman whose son was killed in Iraq) in a very unflattering light. While I don't care for her- NONE OF IT IS TRUE. The picture of her with Jesse Jackson makes it worth forwarding... but the accompanying story is false. All it took was about 10 seconds on Snopes.com and there you have it. This drives me NUTS. Anyone with me???

That is so weird, I was just going to post this question the other day too (after receiving another false email!). I ALWAYS check snopes.com first - I can't stand receiving false emails!!! I mean come on, they're not even realistic stories either (ie. Tim Hortons puts nicotine in their coffee to make it addictive - puleeze!)

 

[MickeyMouseGal]

That was part of it- the rest was how she gave him up at age 7... which is not true.

Ok, I only got the headstone part. I guess the person who sent it to me must have done a fact check and had taken out the other part before forwarding.

 

[sha_lyn]

My mom sends me stuff all the time. Some of it she has repeated over and over for the last 3 years. If I send her the like to snopes, she tells me that snopes is the urban legend because she trust the people that send her the emails.

 

[Daxx]

You know what's worse!?!?

My Principal (an older woman and Nun) always prints off these "warnings" from emails she receives from her nun friends. They're usually the ones like "Warning -- Do not smell perfume samples in a parking lot b/c they contain ether and these people are out to knock you out and take your purse" or "Needles contaminated w/HIV hidden in coin slots of pay phones and when you stick your finger in to get change, you'll get AIDS". Every month, we get some sort of nonsense to pass around from teacher to teacher. Being the Kdg. teacher, I always get these crackpot notes first and know they're not true. I try to tell her to go to SNOPES before she wastes her time printing them up ... but does she listen!?!? No. So, I have to go onto my computer and print up the SNOPES discrepancy thing and attach it to the email she's printed up and send it back to her.

I swear -- she can't take the 2 mins. to check it out herself?!?! Arrrrrrrgggggh!!!!

 

[Auggietina]

This is one of my biggest pet peeves. I usually send back the link to snopes referencing the same story. After a couple of these responses, I've definitely been taken off a lot of distribution lists.

I do the exact same thing! I hate those emails!

 

[Deb in IA]

I usually automatically delete anything with FW: in the subject line.

 

[SC Minnie]

My aunt used to forward these all the time. I would get about 20 emails a day. My email address at work changed and I never sent her the new one.

I have a coworker that will forward all the 'warning' ones. I just delete them. I have gotten the same one from her a couple of times.

 

[phamton]

I always check snopes first and a few times when I have sent the snopes info back to the sender, I have gotten *nasty* responses about how they don't have TIME to look that stuff up. THEN DON'T FORWARD IT TO ME!!!!

If someone types up a list of 100 "little facts you never knew" and sends it to 200 people in their address book, then that's reason to forward it to everyone you know. Yet if I so much as debunk one item from that list with a 30-second Google search, then I "have too much time on my hands." It took me as long to prove that item wrong as it took the person to forward the e-mail to 50 more people, but I'm the one with too much time on my hands. Iif I just send them a snopes link proving the entire list to be inaccurate, then I have "too much time" along with "how can I trust snopes" (ignoring the fact that they apparently trust an anonymous e-mail that's been forwarded since 1996 over the copious references listed on the snopes writeup).

I once even asked someone why, when they spent a few minutes sending this stuff without verifying it, but I spent a few a few minutes trying to verify it before passing it on to everyone I knew, that made me the idiot with too much time on my hands. The response I got was, "I'm trying to pass on important information, and even it if isn't true. It doesn't hurt to pass it on just IN CASE it is." Excuse me for trying to forward accurate information and praise you for passing on everything you hear "just in case" it might be true. Oh yeah, when did "a duck's quack doesn't echo" become "important information" ?

One of the other problems I've noticed is many people are still newbies and don't realize that just because they get an email that "looks official" and has some guy's name at the bottom, doesn't mean the email came from that person (or organization). I run into that all the time. People say things like, "But that message came from George Carlin." That seems to be good enough for them, but me suggesting, "Well, go to George Carlin's website and see where he denies sending that message and calls it a hoax" isn't good enough because, "I've seen the email with his name on it."