PLEEEEEEASE REEEEEAD! or, Why some people just should not have email accounts
Yesterday’s email at my USPS job brought one of those really dumb forwarded emails that promises money if you just forward the email to as many people as possible. It’s not something that happens a lot, fortunately, but it still amazes me when it does. The subject line, which should have tipped off anyone with an IQ above room temperature, was “RE: PLEEEEEEASE REEEEEAD! IT WAS ON GOOD MORNING AMERICA TODAY SHOW …”
This particular email hoax has been around in one version or another for almost ten years according to Snopes.com, the best source for info on urban legends, hoaxes and scams. The version of the email posted at Snopes (collected in 2004) is almost identical to the one I received yesterday.
As annoying as this kind of thing is, there is a certain entertainment value to it. The email is typical of a forwarded chain email in that the actual text of the hoax is far down the body of the message, below the list of those who forwarded it. That makes it easy to trace where the message came from, and who was dim enough to send it on. This one started with a clerk in California, who forwarded it to a dozen or so people. After a few more forwards, it went to the Washington DC area, where it bounced around a few more times before heading for Arkansas, where it was forwarded via a couple of district mailing lists to a Postmaster, who unaccountably forwarded it to some finance related mailing lists, which is how it ended up in my inbox.
There are both management and bargaining unit employees on the list of forwarders, none of whom apparently had any doubts about a message that included phrases like
“My brother’s girlfriend got in on this a few months ago. When i went to visit him for the Baylor/UT game. She showed me her check. It was for the sum of $4,324.44 and was stamped “Paid in full”.
(So not only are these folks gullible, they apparently don’t know how checks work? Oh- and an honorable mention for the District Finance Manager who, on receiving the message, promptly replied to “all” informing the recipients that the message was a hoax and not to forward it. Ummm, thanks for the valuable insight.)
I got about six of these today. Good grief.
and the BS continues …. i just received one of these promising Bill Gates will forward me $243 if i sent this one to everyone on my list (as if that will ever happen) all im going to do is reply to the person that sent it ask suggest they appoligise to those that he sent it to in the first place.
I do agree to one thing, “Gullible” is definatly the word of choice here.
[...] for, flooding the postal email system with dire warnings about terrorists dressed as UPS men, or amazing cash giveaways from Microsoft that amazingly have been overlooked by the media, but that you can get in on if you just forward [...]