This is one phenomenon, which, if it was a tangible entity, I would want to blow up with a huge pile of dynamite! Here are some encounters I've had:

• When I was in college I took a "communications" class and one of the projects was to give a persuasive speech. Another student gave her speech about why we should not drink Coke, and supported this with "facts" like, police use Coke to clean up blood at crime scenes.
• Someone on the fozzyrock.com boards a few years ago was signing his posts with supposed Bush quotes, like "The trouble with the French is that they don't have a word for entrepreneur."
• Someone on the radio station New Jersey 101.5 claimed that "picnic" originally meant "pick a ..." (insert racially offensive word I'm not sure if I'm allowed to type here)
• According to rumors I've heard from people in various services, and seen on the forums.military.com boards, recruits in (insert service here) Basic Training have "stress cards" which they can use to get a "timeout" from getting hounded by instructors.

Well guess what people? All of those things have been disproved by snopes.com here, here, here, and here. Now what do all these things have in common? They all started in forwarded e-mails! Not only does everyone forward every forwarded e-mail they get, they believe everything in them, too. Here's a handy tip: if you read it in a forwarded e-mail, IT IS NOT TRUE.

So what can we do about this? I got some ideas while searching for some CDs at Borders this morning. First, if you get a forwarded e-mail with some amazing "facts" in it, go to snopes.com or truthorfiction.com because if it's in a forwarded e-mail, chances are one or both of those sites disproved it long ago. Once you find the page which shows that the supposed "facts" are false, copy and paste all the text on the appropriate snopes.com page (don't just put a link there--most people are too lazy to click a link), put it in an e-mail message and send that message not only to the person who sent you the forwarded e-mail, but to everyone else that person sent it to.

Now here's the good part. If you really want to fight this battle, let's take the masses' fondness for forwarding every forwarded e-mail they get and make it work for us. Find a page at snopes.com or something similar which deals with an urban legend you've been hearing/reading a lot lately. Copy the whole page (and don't forget to include a link to the source, we don't want to be accused of plagiarism), stick it in an e-mail, make sure the subject line begins with "FW:" so people know it's supposed to be forwarded, then send that bad boy to everyone on the list. Now we'll see how infectious the truth really is!

Yep. We have a friend, who obviously has us on her 'forward everthing' list. She knows we're Jewish, but apparently thinks we'd be interested in the "Jesus loves you" chain mails.

Arrgh!

I used to get a ton of stuff from one of MJ's friends where I would turn to her and say "can I just filter all of her stuff into the spam box from now on?"

I have a friend at work who sent me the "US spent a million developing a pen for space, the Soviets used a pencil" urban legend and I almost stabbed him to death with my pen. My spacepen. Which probably would have kept writing.

I absolutely agree. I have friends that forward all this stuff and I did exactly what Tom did. Boy, did I cop a barrage. I actually got one email back from one of the other people on the list saying I was a spoil sport and I should get a get a sense of humour. When I replied that I was sick of my email box being cluttered with pointless garbage she then responded by sending approximately 30 emails of that stuff.

My revenge? I did the same thing with each and every one of them. Took me a long time (an afternoon) but boy was it worth it....

There used to be a couple of friends from whom I would get odd emails about various hoaxes, email campaigns, etc., and typically, I'd do a simple search at Snopes, provide the link to them, and since they didn't seem to use the BCC field, I'd also send the link to every email indicated as a recipient of it as well, with a friendly suggestion to bookmark that site, and use the search engine to check such stuff before spreading it. I know that at least some of them have taken it to heart, and I notice that I don't receive that stuff as often, but just a couple of days ago, I got an email from my cousin-in-law about this ridiculous idea to boycott the two largest oil companies by not buying their oil. I did my thing, sending the Snopes link debunking it to him and everyone else whose email I saw.

Just my little contribution to trying to make the world a bit more rational.

The sad thing is that some people are still afraid of chain emails in the same way they were of chain letters. My mum forwards me every email that ends, “Send this to ten people in the next ten minutes and something wonderful will happen to you.” Most of them are fairly amusing emails (apart from the implied threat at the end) but I’m aware that occasionally she sends stuff that she must know that I’d not be interested in. There’s no point me telling her to stop it because I know she can’t shake off this fear that if she doesn’t, her roof will fall in. My roof is still holding together despite the fact that I delete each one after glancing through it. (Looks up and crosses fingers nervously.)

What’s more irritating is that she hasn’t learned the art of deleting out all the lists of people to whom the email has been sent so far, so it takes me about three minutes of scrolling down before I get to the bleedin’ text!

A few years ago my brother had sent me a list of "failed overseas marketing ideas." He thought that stuff was hilarious but I had to ruin it with some facts. These ideas included:

• Coca-Cola's initial transliteration of their name into Chinese produced a rendering whose meaning was "bite the wax tadpole."

• The Chevrolet Nova sold poorly in Spanish-speaking countries because its name translates as "doesn't go" in Spanish.
• My brother's favorite, even after he new it was false, A slogan for Frank Perdue chicken, "it takes a strong man to make a tender chicken," was translated as the equivalent of "it takes a sexually aroused man to make a chicken affectionate."

I wonder why Snopes didn't do the last one?

Maybe because it would be too fowl?

One good way to avoid getting any of those is to use Hotmail which allows you to set your account to Exclusive so that you'll only receive emails from people whose address are in your address book. Of course, if you've a family member or two who sends 'em anyway then the best you could do would be to ask 'em to stop and not believe any of the BS about bad luck happening if you don't forward 'em.

If you use any other kind of email service that doesn't provide that kinda protection then simply just delete 'em and don't reply to them at all cuz all that does is verify to the senders that your email account's active which in turn encourages them to send you even more. Don't even click on the links provided for that same reason, plus you could possibly get a virus that way, too, if not from the link itself then perhaps the page or popup that it brings up. It also doesn't help to mark those addresses as spam if your account has that function because the senders use several addresses at the same time and keep changing them anyway so there's little chance of seeing the same ones, though you'll still often see the exact same emails.

And another thing: who dreams up these stupid things anyway? Why bother taking so much time to create and then email 'em out? Do people actually pay other people to do that or what? Whether it's a chainletter or BS ads for male enhancement or whatnot the vast majority of people know that they're fake emails and that the links go nowhere and again do nothing more than to let the senders know that your email account's active. At least more people do nowadays as they become more and more Internet savvy, but there will always be those naive enough to click 'em and suffer any possible consequences.

Being an Aethiest I would always get those Jesus loves you or we are praying for you junk from some members of my family or my ex friends. I tried asking politely but they said it was for my own good. SO I wound up haivng to either block family or sending back tracts from positiveaethiesm.org or the ACLU. (I wound up signing one of the most offensive of the exfriends for every aclu or freedom or reason mailing list I could get their email to. From what I understadn they had to abandon that account.)

I also did the snopes and reply with facts thing. Now I dont get the junk from those folks (of course those folks also dont talk to me anymore either but I still consider that a win.) Seems like some people enjoy being stupid and hate it when the curtain of ignorance is pulled back by the arm of reason and truth.

I'm agnostic myself, R, and one who really hates religion, as you might've noticed from some...ok, many...of my earlier posts from years ago.

Anyway, just wondering but didja ever tell your family and ex-friends something like that while you appreciated their good intentions would they please allow you to know or decide what's best for yourself? I've not had that experience before but if I did that's what I'd do, telling them that, if they persisted in shoving their point down my throat, it was very condescending of them, with more than a little bit of judging involved as well.

Last week a Baptist father and his little son came to my door and when I saw the pamplet in the dad's hand I politely said no thanks, I'm not interested and he very graciously backed off and left, no fuss, no muss. Another time I did have one short born again guy I worked with give me the old "Don't take the lord's name in vain" when I said GD within earshot of him, though not directed at him since I didn't know his religious feelings till he spoke up that day. Anyway, I told him to shut up.

Yeah I tried asking politely and explaining that I knew according to them I was goign to hell but I was prepared to deal with that (I'm bringing marshmallows as someone on another board's sig says) and thank you but I don't see it that way and I got some mixed results. Some backed off some didn't. My uncle backed off but one of my cousin's didnt and wound up blocked. My brother in law and my mother in law didnt but stopped talking to me for the most part. The exfriend and exgirlfriend (I think I've mentioned them a bit) both stopped sending the stuff but got prissy about it. Oh well that's life.

Yeah I've had both those experiences before as well, and a few not so polite folks as well. But thats for another board.

One urban legend that really bugs me is where people assume that single people have "gobs of money" and have "no one to spend money on but themselves"

As a single person, this urban legend is so wrong, we need a new word for "wrong".

If a single person lives in an apartment, the rent is $600 and up.

If a single person lives in a condo or townhouse, the mortage is $450 and up (Not including association which is another $150 and up)

The cost of phone usage is $31 and up

The cost of electricity is $40 and up

The cost of gas for a car is $2.50 and up

Car maintainence can cost anywhere from $20 and up (depending on the problem)

Then there's the credit card bill

Then there's groceries.

Then there's auto insurance.

And for singles who have a house, there's the gas (heating) bill

Tell me....

What "extra money" are those people talking about?

I have found kindred spirits!!! Praise God! (I couldn't resist, R and MarkN!)

I had to check this thread out because just this past weekend I posted a rant about family and friends who spam me with ridiculous email forwards. (I know, I know: a blog is so cliche, bourgeois, self-aggrandizing, boorish...but it's fun to shoot my mouth off at will!)

R and MarkN, I understand your frustration: I'm a pastor and while I appreciate the thought behind why my family feels the need to send those religiously-themed emails to EVERY FRAKKING PERSON IN THEIR ADDRESS BOOK, I find them insipid, cliche, and often annoying (I don't read through text in 15 colors and 12 font sizes containing 18,000 GIFs of smileys and kittens and spinning crosses and flapping angels). I find it empty of any theological power because that's not the sort of faith I have; that's not the sort of God I know.

R, I think you handled it the best way you can: if someone will not relent from Bible-thumping (something I find extremely counter-productive to Christian faith) by email, block 'em. I did it to my own father for a time for his constant barrage of right-wing email forwards whinging about Ted Kennedy and Monica Lewinski (let it go, people!) and calling Democrats (and therefore me) stupid, anti-American, un-patriotic and terrrrrist-lovers.

Otherwise, I figure you can either tell the people who forward these things to you that a pastor you know (me) suggested their efforts do more harm than good, or tell them you don't have time to read all these emails what with the nightly goat sacrifices you have to participate in.

My in-laws used to forward the stupid bogus virus warnings to everyone.

I finally convinced them to send it to me, not as a warning, but to ask if it was legit.

I told them that I didn't mind the query, but the indiscriminate blasting pissed me off. They actually did that a couple of times, until they figured out how to check it themselves!

When my father would send everyone including me the usual dumb forwards and I would refute one after another after another, I finally turned him onto Snopes.com - though I don't know how effective that is or is not given he keeps calling it "Snoops dot com"...

If it was one or two people doing this, I could handle it, maybe. But it's my father, my brother, my mother, my aunt, my wife's aunt and her husband (oh, God, STOP with the useless PETITION forwards, you two!), a couple members of my church...

And if it were one or two types, but it's the religious feel-good glurges, and the Boycott the Oil Companies Day requests, and the anti-Muslim screeds, and the oh-my-god-it-will-burn-your-hard-drive bogus virus warnings accompanied by "this is from a friend who works for the State and checked it out - it's true!" warning from the sender at the top, and the "sign your name, forward it to everyone, and the 1000th person send it to the president!" petitions, and the endless flood of political slams...

Why is it I never get a forward from a liberal engaging in ad hominum attacks on conservatives? It's only conservatives whinging on about Ted Kennedy and Monica Lewinski and those pesky illegal immigrants who are Al Qaeda terrrrists in disguise just out to steal our money then nuke us, donchaknow.

And the 47th time I get a forward from my father calling Democrats stupid, I start to think he really believes all Democrats, including his son, really are stupid. Grrr.

My mom sends me all the Bush hate mail.

I've told her time and time again, that I don't find the Bush jokes funny -- not for any political reason, but simply that how many ways can you say "Bush is stupid" before it gets old? Answer -- not very many.

one of my wifes relatives sent me so much junk mail, I had to ask them to stop!

There's actually a whole website devoted to that stuff called myrightwingdad which cataloged all of what Jon Stewart once called "the only message that your grandmother has ever been able to successfully send," you know the one about Obama being a Muslim.

He started it because his Dad was constantly sending him those right-wing lies and distortions but now it's grown to include left-wing garbage like 9/11 conspiracies.

Looks like a local news station fell for the "unlock your car with your cell phone" hoax:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmIGT0IrO_0&feature=related

It might have appeared to "work" there because the guy with the keyfob just happened to be close enough to the car for the radio signal to reach. Now if she was miles away from the guy with the fob and tried this, she would have a big change of heart about just how "well" this "works".