A PSA « Fiber Follies

A PSA

15 April, 2008 at 10:45 am (Yatterbabble)

I send a version of this letter out to all my emailing friends, family and acquaintances, every year. Naturally most of them are not interested in using the internets as anything but a toy. Hi! I love you all, but you really need to pay attention to this! You’re the reason my inboxes get spammed. You’re also the reason your own inboxes get spammed.

Listen up, folks:

The Web is NOT a toy! Its use requires responsibility. Those of you who disagree with any of the following recommendations should NEVER, EVER, use email. I’m sorry if you don’t like this, but will not retract the statement. YOU are the BIGGEST enablers of spammers and malware.

One of you complained last year, then continued to send e-cards and forwarded emails to one of my (then new) email addresses. I have since terminated that email, as it soon started receiving around 400 spam emails daily. Alone. Just that one email address. It wasn’t even used for registration on other sites. I never sent e-cards using that email. I never forwarded anything from or to that email. But it happened. Just from one person’s carelessness. It doesn’t take much.

Aren’t you tired of trying to sift through your email to find legitimate communiqués?

My business email address is the worst hit. I’ve had to change it before because the spam was impossible to control. I don’t want or need to go through that again. When I change my business email I must re-print business cards, I must make the changes on every page of my website, I must change the company letterhead and FAX cover sheets. I must change the contact information to the telephone company, the bank, my attorney, my accountant, the merchant account provider, and the payment gateway provider. For the last two I also pay a fee for the change. Then I need to notify every client of the change. And, of course, I need to notify you! That’s a lot of hours taken away from my schedule, and a deal of wasted materials, and, of course, those awful fees required for the changes. Why would any of you want to cause me such expense and waste of time?

So. Any of you who have never before taken responsibility for your internet use but are interested in doing so:

1. DON’T FORWARD EMAIL! I now have my pc set up to filter out ALL forwarded emails. All of them. Every last one. I don’t have time to look at them. I am still susceptible to spam. The minute one of you picks up a Trojan or worm, it races through your email address book, thus including everyone on that address book in a deluge of sewage! Most internet users do NOT use precautionary software on a regular basis to help prevent this. SO~
1. Keep email addresses someplace else, NOT in your email address book, so that a trip through your address book won’t result in everyone you know being walloped with spam and malware.
2. Wouldn’t it be far nicer to send a simple “Hi! How are you?” than to bombard everyone with rubbish, forwards, and spam? I can’t think of anyone who’d rather receive a forwarded email than a personal note. Also, most forwards making the rounds have been around for years-that’s right, years. Just because it’s new to you doesn’t mean it’s new to everyone. If you receive one of those purported Public Service Announcement emails, please check it against Snopes.com or hoaxbusters.com BEFORE forwarding it to everyone. You’d be surprised at how many of these are pure malarkey. Take the time to verify. Please. Face it, every one of you think that you couldn’t possibly contribute to the problem, when you forward just this one nice story, or just this one funny story, or just this one chain email, or just this one PSA. Most people aren’t interested in learning about email and how spam circulates. But your lack of interest ought to keep you off the web. Analogy? It only takes ONE sexual encounter to result in pregnancy or STDs. So the “Just this One” crowd had best disperse. I don’t want to hear it.
3. I get a lot of this: “I only forward emails that I know the sender of” Huh? So, you’re claiming that you know who forwarded the email to whoever forwarded it to whoever forwarded it to you, on to the originator of the forwarded email. Next you’ll be telling me that this whole chain of email forwarders take only the best care of their computers and are using government spy technology to protect their computers so there’s no way you’ll be compromised. Riiiiight. How many of those people have really taken the time to protect their computers from internet baddies (most likely none). DON’T FORWARD EMAILS!!! Period!!!
4. Don’t give anybody, for any reason, my email address, or that of anybody you love WITHOUT permission. You wouldn’t give out my phone number or address to a complete stranger would you? Then don’t give out my email address.