Although more serious than my kind and well meaning friends forwarding sweet emails, "Ghana text hoax predicting earthquake prompts panic" (2010), is good example of why we should not forward a message just because someone asks us to.
The BBC New reports that an SMS message falsely claimed that NASA, the US space agency, had warned that a massive earthquake was about to strike teh African country of Ghana. The message included a request, or warning, to send it on to other people. THis was done and panic resulted. There was, of course, no earthquake and no reason to think that there would be.
This reminded me of emails I sometimes get from people. They have forwarded something to help my health, pointing out some awful danger I might be unaware of, or to raise money for some pitiful looking child, or whatever. In all cases, the email was forwarded for no better reason than the person who last received it was asked to forward it. No matter what the content, these emails annoy me. I think that they are spam, and as useless as spam. They are designed to self-propagate like a virus, and are much like any other computer virus in wasting resources .
The BBC New reports that an SMS message falsely claimed that NASA, the US space agency, had warned that a massive earthquake was about to strike teh African country of Ghana. The message included a request, or warning, to send it on to other people. THis was done and panic resulted. There was, of course, no earthquake and no reason to think that there would be.
This reminded me of emails I sometimes get from people. They have forwarded something to help my health, pointing out some awful danger I might be unaware of, or to raise money for some pitiful looking child, or whatever. In all cases, the email was forwarded for no better reason than the person who last received it was asked to forward it. No matter what the content, these emails annoy me. I think that they are spam, and as useless as spam. They are designed to self-propagate like a virus, and are much like any other computer virus in wasting resources .
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References
Ghana text hoax predicting earthquake prompts panic. (2010, Janaury 18). BBC News. Retrieved Janaury 19, 2010 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8465619.stm
I agree that many people, under good intention, help spread such kind of rumor because they are afraid that their friends or relatives might miss the important information. However, forwarding such mail without consider the trustworthy of the source might makes the situation worse, instead of giving useful information, most this mails are spam.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. I think it's spam, especially for donation. I think that the message in these emails is fake. And I agree with you that many people forward these email because they are asked. In the other hand, some people think that the message is real, so they want to help a pitiful looking child. Justification that which one is real is very difficult. I always get the spam which contains "if you don't send this email to 10 people, you have to pay a fee for Msn", but I didn't get any spam SMS.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. Spam is not only annoying but it also dangerous,too. Especially for people who is not familiar with using e-mail, they tend to believe some of huax mails! My aunt warned our relatives about drinking cold green tea, she really believed that it can cause cancer since a forwarded mail told her that!
ReplyDeleteThe most disturbing spam ever for me would be that mail which claimed to be sent by hotmail, telling you to forward the mail to 15 more people and if you don't do it, hotmail would charged you for using the website. I recieved this e-mail since I was 12, now I'm 21 and still recieve it now and then.
I've just noticed that this mail also annoyed Ann,too. It's a very popular one, then.
I agree with you. Sometimes, spam mail delivered virus to my computer, so it caused very harmful damage. I worried about my daughters', too. There are so many spams that advetise unpropriate for young kids, and it forced to open it. My daughter said that it made her embarracing.
ReplyDeleteI hold the view that at least, Ghana's National Security Authority take heed of registering names and details for every mobile phone number in the country so as to prevent this horrible incident to reoccur.
ReplyDelete