Bruce Perens

I often get emails from well-meaning people who are passing along warnings that were passed to them by a friend. While some of these messages are true, some are not, and that is why you should NEVER pass along ANY email that encourages you to do so.

One of the most recent was about a virus masquerading as a FedEx shipment notification.

If you pass along an email that actually happens to be true, you are also likely to pass along one that has some unsavory motive behind it. It might be that someone is attempting to get you and others to do something that makes you more vulnerable in some way.

Many messages are not actively harmful, but are created by net dweebs who get their rocks off by seeing a million people do some silly thing that they advised them to do in a pass-around message on the internet. Every time they see their message come back through some network of total strangers, it entertains them.

Real experts, regardless of the topic, will never ask you to pass along a warning in email, because they are aware of how important it is that people only get such information from a reliable source.

Most of these messages refer to some safety or security issue, but one of the most famous of them urged people to send postcards to a dying boy. Years after the boy recovered, he was still getting thousands of postcards and it was a hardship to his family and even the post office. My favorite is the Kidney Stealing Hoax.

So, next time you see one of those pass-around emails, please refrain, no matter how well-meaning it seems.