A word to the wise. I got this in an email, and I thank whomever wrote it!
Email petitions are NOT acceptable to Congress or any other municipality. To be acceptable, petitions must have a signed signature and full address. Almost all email that ask you to add your name and forward on to others are similar to that mass letter years ago that asked people to send business cards to the little kid in Florida who wants to break the Guinness Book of Records for the most cards. All it was (and all this type of email is) is to get names and "cookie" tracking info for tele-marketers and spammers to validate active email accounts for their own purposes.
Any time you see an email that says forward this on to "10" of your friends, sign this petition, or you'll get good luck or whatever, has either an email tracker program attached that tracks the cookies and emails of those folks you forward to or the host sender is getting a copy each time it gets forwarded and then is able to get lists of "active" emails to use in spam emails or sell to others that do.
If you want to forward stuff like this because it's interesting, take off all the "front" info and all the forwards and DON'T add your name to them.
Tell others and you will be providing a good service to your friends and will be rewarded by not getting 30000 spam emails in the future. I always doubted if these email petitions ever accomplished anything. Now I am going to delete all petitions no matter what they promote. If anyone can show me where a petition has ever had any results I will reconsider.
Give everybody a break by not forwarding all those petitions.
Click below to check it out with Truth or Fiction.
http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/p/petitions.htm
18 comments:
I rarely Forward anything, but I do believe organizations like True Majority and MoveOn, which do not ask you necessarily to Forward anything, but ask you to tell your friends--NO THREAT OF BAD LUCK---those petituons I believe do something. You'd have to Google this I guess, but I like what these two organizations stand for and as I said, there is no---"Send this to 10 people or you will get the plague---"
Forwarding, in general, any of those things that say Fwd. Fwd, etc...is not good because of all the addresses that are on these emails. The possability of getting some virus thing is greater with the umpteen emails---at least that is what I have been told--I have Virus Protection, of course, but I still do not want Firwards of any kind...so,I DELETE ALL FORWARDS, no matter who they are from and have told all my friends who send me anything this way...to either take me off their list; send me whatever another way; and that I do not open any forwards, period!
I hate the threat of bad luck and the like, when I get something like it I delete it immediately! I don't think it is fair to receive something like it, there are people who believe in this. Thanks so much for your information ! and thanks for your comment - I updated my post because I realized thanks to you that the procedure wasn't clear. I feel honored to have your support anyways!!
That is good knowledge and advice Judy, thanks.
Good advice Judy. Usually I don't even open these kinds of emails, even from friens and family. Sometimes I get on my high horse and reply to everyone with a link to the page showing it to be a hoax on www.snopes.com
Doesn't seem to stop anyone though.
I never forward anything, even when threatened with several years of bad luck!
Here by way of michele!
Hi,I am loathe to say this too loud, I have not had any of these Petition type emails, I am grateful for that. I agree with your sentiments on them entirely I do have a copy of a chain letter that is rather funny (I think I will post it some time soon.. By the way, I admit it,(quick lock me up) I really enjoyed your puns.
Huh, I always secretly wondered that myself. Good to know, thanks for posting this!
Wize advice indeed Judy.
Thank You
i will post this
( after I forward all this junk mail to all the people in my britney spears fan club)
I don't like to forward things, don't like getting forwarded things. I like your reasons for not doing it much better than the ones I've been using. Sometimes it is hard to think of ten "friends" to forward to anyway! :)
Thanks for putting into words what so many of us feel, Judy. I really wish some of these inveterate e-mail forwarders would just stop. It's beyond annoying, and it wastes my time. Worse, it prompts me to discount anything these people send me in future. I've missed legitimate e-mails from these folks because they were simply forwarded into the spam filter.
Of course, the people most likely to need this lesson are the least likely to read your excellent entry.
Sigh.
This is the best public service message I've heard in a long time. I will now proceed to forward it to everyone I know via email. : )
Here from Michele today.
THANY YOU for posting that. Do you know how many of these I get? lol I delete immediately. :)
Hey, that's a new site. I always go to Shopes dot com too. :)
~S
I got the same thing! I checked it out on Urban Legends and came up with the same information you did. I didn't sign or forward the electronic petition. I'm sure people mean well, but they're just wasting time.
Great advice Judy! I get these things and have been guilty of forwarding them now & again too. I can't think of any petition email that's garnered results.
I don't forward stuff often....but I really had no clue about signing the petitions not really being valid.
Just goes to show ya....you learn something new every day.
So thanks for this one, Judy.
Judy THANK YOU for posting this. Unfortunately a pet peeve of mine too. I love my e-mails and I get a lot, but all the forward on and on and I'll have bad luck if I don't send to 10 and back to the one that sent it to me... PLEASEEEEE get a life folks.
And, while we're ranting... could everyone learn HOW to forward... forward from the actual text... don't forward the original so I have to click through 10 forwards to get to the actual content :)
This is a hoax. Please see here:
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/petition/false.asp
(read the very bottom)
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