How do you handle this chain email scenario

[Hatfield]

let's say someone sends you a chain email that is filled with lies....

do you ignore it and delete?

or

do you respond to everyone with the snopes link, in an effort to at least stop someone from forwarding on the nonsense?

[Boomer.....]

Ignore it and delete it, even if I wont be rich in 10 days. I hate that ****!

[Viking Kitten]

This actually came up in my family recently when my sweet little 80-year-old Grandpa forwarded out that "Barack Obama is a terrorist" e-mail. One family member went over the top in his reply to everyone with the Snopes link... I'm still not sure if they've talked since it happened.

What about responding to the sender only with the Snopes link, and trust they will do the right thing and send out a retraction? That way you don't make them look like a jackass.

[Hatfield]

i sent out the snopes link with some commentary that I don't think is too over the top:

Both claims are false and filled with misinformation. The email claims it has been moving since 9/11 in an effort to honor and remember those victims of 9/11; however I feel you do those victims (and really everyone) a disservice when you spread inaccurate stories in their name in an attempt to politically smear someone.

In today's climate there are plenty of reasons to disagree with a persons politics, policies, etc., there is no need to invent/spread false statements in an attempt to disparage someone.

I don't mean to sound as if I am preaching from the soapbox, but I find it heartbreaking that there are those out there that would use the events of any tragedy as a mechanism to spread hate.

With that said, I encourage everyone to take a moment and at least check with snopes (www.snopes.com) prior to sending out chain emails in an attempt to see if what you are sending is even accurate.

[jeremy885]

l
do you respond to everyone with the snopes link, in an effort to at least stop someone from forwarding on the nonsense?


I do this with one of my Frat brothers everytime he sends one out.

[Hamhock]

i usually single out one or two of the people i know best and respond to keep them from looking like idiots.

[StoopTroup]

I heard Tommy Hilfiger and Oprah mud wrastled on her show yesterday.

[soonerbrat]

This actually came up in my family recently when my sweet little 80-year-old Grandpa forwarded out that "Barack Obama is a terrorist" e-mail. One family member went over the top in his reply to everyone with the Snopes link... I'm still not sure if they've talked since it happened.

What about responding to the sender only with the Snopes link, and trust they will do the right thing and send out a retraction? That way you don't make them look like a jackass.


that's what I usually do.

[Osce0la]

Someone posted a MySpace bulletin about some kid in another country that had been abducted, beaten, and killed and stated that the guys that did it to him were going to be set free and to forward the email to keep them from being released. I reposted the bulleting with the link to snopes letting everyone know that not all of the details in the story are true (and that parts of it that were made up must have been made up by some sick ****er) and that the boys that did it were released almost (if not over) a decade ago, so quit reposting the stupid thing because they are already free...

[TheHumanAlphabet]

let's say someone sends you a chain email that is filled with lies....

do you ignore it and delete?

or

do you respond to everyone with the snopes link, in an effort to at least stop someone from forwarding on the nonsense?

I started responding to my BIL with the SNOPES link. He stop sending me crap emails that were filling up by in-box.

[PhxSooner]

Snopes is your friend.

We get emails like that from one side of the family in particular. People, if it sounds a little too Hallmarkish, it's probably not true. And if I get that one about not buying gas on the 15th one more time...

[MamaMia]

I don't forward those. If I think the email is fun, I'll erase the part that instructs people to send it on and then I share it with whomever I think might get a chuckle out of it.

[Hamhock]

i gotta admit i was pretty outraged when i learned they were removing "In God We Trust" from the new dollar.

[slickdawg]

that's what I usually do.



ditto.

[RacerX]

I usually just reply

"Please unsubscribe me from your list"

[tbl]

i sent out the snopes link with some commentary that I don't think is too over the top:

I typically do reply all (and there are usually scores of people I don't know), b/c the people that send me those stupid forwards keep doing it over and over again. I've always given them a shot by replying just to them, so hopefully in the future they'll do 15 seconds of research before sending it out en masse... but when that doesn't work, reply all from here on out.

[Pricetag]

90 percent of these types of e-mails I get from my mom, with an occasional one from my dad sprinkled in there. I know that it happens because they still remember when you could believe almost everything that you read. I'm pretty sure that my mom doesn't read all of many of the ones she forwards on, because they tend to get pretty hate filled toward the bottom where people have tacked on their own opinions.

I never correct them. It hurts my feelings when my parents are embarrassed, so I don't want to see them corrected, nor do I want to see a retraction. Occasionally, I'll see an unfamiliar friend or co-worker of theirs who was also on the list do it, and it makes me want to fight them.

[Hatfield]

my one aunt in particular does it....and the frustrating thing of it all, is when i shoot back that yet again she has sent out another round of nonsense...she will reply back "thanks, I know I can count on you to let me know if it is real or not"

if you don't know then why sent it out to a bunch of people??

[Osce0la]

Snopes is your friend.

We get emails like that from one side of the family in particular. People, if it sounds a little too Hallmarkish, it's probably not true. And if I get that one about not buying gas on the 15th one more time...
heh...I was just about to post something about that. A friend of mine just posted that in a bulletin talking about how it would take $2.2 billion out of the companies' pockets for one day blah blah blah...nobody ever mentions the fact that the day before the so called "gas out" people are going to have to make sure they have gas to make it through the next day, and in the days after the "gas out" people are going to have to get gas because they didn't get it on May 15. The people that believe these things work are seriously warped.

Also, as stated, I obviously hate God because I have never forwarded the "repost/forward this or you are denying God" crap...

[XingTheRubicon]

What and for whom is the motivation and when it comes to these chain emails begging you to forward it?

How does some idiot benefit from an email that is forwarded to a billion people?

[Osce0la]

I got a chain text message no too long ago...I took my phone off the charger while I was getting ready to go to work and BAM - I have a text message saying something about the Virginia Tech shootings and to forward this message blah blah blah...

If chain texts becomes the new thing somebody will be getting their a** kicked.

[soonerboomer93]

I made it clear a long long long time ago that I do not want to receive chain e-mails, I don't reply to them, I don't forward them, I just delete them. I don't want the cute "stories" or the "holy **** video". My friends and family simply do not send me any thing like that except for maybe 1 time a month.


I think part of that is 1/2 my family doesn't have my e-mail, my parents don't like chain mail, and most of my friends are like me and have had the internet for over a decade and most of that stuff lost it's novelty a long time ago.

[Jeopardude]

i sent out the snopes link with some commentary that I don't think is too over the top:

Both claims are false and filled with misinformation. The email claims it has been moving since 9/11 in an effort to honor and remember those victims of 9/11; however I feel you do those victims (and really everyone) a disservice when you spread inaccurate stories in their name in an attempt to politically smear someone.

In today's climate there are plenty of reasons to disagree with a persons politics, policies, etc., there is no need to invent/spread false statements in an attempt to disparage someone.

I don't mean to sound as if I am preaching from the soapbox, but I find it heartbreaking that there are those out there that would use the events of any tragedy as a mechanism to spread hate.

With that said, I encourage everyone to take a moment and at least check with snopes (www.snopes.com) prior to sending out chain emails in an attempt to see if what you are sending is even accurate.

Is this one with the Gold Star mothers? My accountant (or someone in the office) has that printed out and in the reception area for people to read! I printed out the snopes info on it and am going to crib your reply and lay it on top of it.

[Hatfield]

it was the one claiming ollie north was questioned by al gore at the congressional hearing and the one trying to blame clinton for letting mohammad atta go so he could fly a plane into the wtc.

both claims are false and you are seemingly supposed to honor the victims of 9/11 by passing it on....even though it is false. stupidity at its finest.