Research before forwarding
“If you forward this blog, Bill Gates would send you a check for $5000. It’s all true. It was in the NY Times”. Have you ever opened up an email like that? Maybe not the exact words but same idea. You are not alone. Many of us have not only received but also forwarded emails like this without a moment’s hesitation, hoping to cash in on whatever the email promises.
Being a suspicious person, (a curse and a blessing sometimes), I do not take too many things at face value. If you need to keep a chain email going, I am the wrong person to send it to. If it promises money or free gifts, I check it out for legitimacy. I have VIP access to snopes.
If a forward has phone numbers, you can bet I’ll try calling them. Once I received one about a missing child and I called the number that was supposed to connect me the someone who was in charge of the case. Of course it was all a hoax.
Most of these emails can be seen for what they are if we take a minute or two to check out their validity. Google, snopes and other websites are out there, use them. If it sounds too good to be true, it most likely is.
Note: If you click ‘like’, you will be automatically selected to be Freshly Pressed. Honestly! Don’t have a WP account? No problem, you will receive a cheque in the mail. It’s true! My neighbor’s friend’s sister’s dog got his cheque yesterday!
Update: I guess some people did not read my blog. This morning, I went on Facebook and noticed everyone was sharing a photo of a guy with a powerball ticket bearing the winning numbers of the last draw. It said that if everyone shared the photo, he would give one million dollars to a random person. I was surprised to see some of my friends who had fallen for this obvious fake and decided to do some research. It didn’t take me long, to find out that I was right. Read it here.
Related articles
- Tired Of Fact-Checking Those Bogus Right Wing Chain Emails? There’s An App For That! (addictinginfo.org)
- LazyTruth Fact Check Chain Emails, Responds With The Truth (lifehacker.com.au)
- FW: FW: Fw: FW: Fwd: fwd: fw: LazyTruth tackles false claims in email chain letters (niemanlab.org)
- Two Limitations of the Human Mind (pochp.wordpress.com)
- Break the chain (joyandwoe.wordpress.com)
- Fake Powerball Winner
