Spam, Not the Edible Kind

My good friends know that I dislike receiving spam email. I make it a point to let them know after the first time I receive an email from them that "I have to forward to ten or more friends, or the earth opens up and swallows me". I tell them politely that while I appreciate hearing from them, I would prefer to be taken off their automatic "let us forward this to them since they have nothing better to do" mailing list.

Let us admit that what someone else finds amusing may not necessarily tickle my funny bone. The worst time was when old classmate of my husband got hold of our email address. His idea of catching up was to send a rather offensive picture of a woman who got caught in an embarrasing position. He did not stop to think that perhaps it is the woman of the house who actually reads the mail? We have not heard from him again after I contacted him to take us off his "I am still in high school" list.

Then there are the concerned citizens of the world. I appreciate their solicitousness, their taking the time to forward email regarding issues that they feel I should be made aware of. On the other hand, I now see killers lurking behind every bush and I am afraid that some of the food from the fast-food chains I go to, contain either worms or human body parts. Here is a link to a website that was featured on the Reader's Digest. This website verifies rumours, please check it out before forwarding. By the way, the photos circulating that are supposed to be from the Air France crash are screen shots from the pilot episode of the show "Lost".

It may seem harmless enough for you to forward that Microsoft/AOL tracking email that says if you do, you get a big fat check in the mail. Just remember that if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably isn't true. Big business will not hand out $10,000 checks or fabulous giveaways just so you can do something with a push of a button. In addition, you are adding on my email address to a long list that someone somewhere is probably collecting. Sometimes, just by repetition, we give credence to rumours, let us not add on to those circulating around the world wide web.