Forwarding Email Hoaxes

I receive an email about once a week from a very close relative (ok, my mom) that hasn’t originated from her.  The contents of the email are varied, but generally deal with warnings, possible money making opportunities, and other similar topics.  

I almost always reply that the email that she forwarded was a hoax.  How can she think that Bill Gates will send her $1000, that there is a Nigerian Prince waiting to bestow a cool $10 million, or that there is a cancer-stricken child that will be saved, if everyone forwards the email to all of their friends?

I reply that she is gravely mistaken.  I always include a link or ten to genuine web articles that reference these hoaxes.  

I also caution her that she could actually be forwarding dangerous links and harming her friends' computers.  

Is this a generational thing?  Boomer 6446 (link to blog post) discusses this more in-depth than I have the patience for.  I lost it after the last email warning me about my Swiffer WetJet and how it would cause my dog’s liver to fail. 

Comments

[Daniel]

my girlfriend seems to believe that there actually are truthful email forward campaigns and that snopes is in on the conspiracy...half the time. During the election campaign, her hardcore republican family forwarded things about Obama being sworn in on the Qur'an, that he refuses to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, so I showed her trusty ol' snopes.com and she would send reply-all emails to her far-reaching family with links to relevant pages and snarky messages about not believing all you read...

and then we have to erupt into a battle of the century because she tells me when we get our place together we're not going to have a microwave because she got an email about microwaved water killing plants, microwaved blood killing patients, microwaved foods being cancerous, microwaves plotting to creep into our bedroom and night and slit our throats; and refuses to accept Snopes as submissible evidence that microwaves are not sentient and vengeful.



There are no truthful email forward campaigns. Forward this comment to 20 people within the next 10 minutes and your relatives will finally stop sending you conveniently religious heartwarming stories of love.