More Internet Urban Legends

You have probably seen them come into your Inbox. You might have opened some of them and suffered as a result. A good Golden Rule to follow is never open an attachment in an email from someone you don’t know.

One way to eliminate a lot of the spam that downloads into your Inbox every morning is to use Thunderbird mail program. It has a built-in anti-spam button you click on whenever a spam mail comes in. As you click to mark an email “spam” the program “learns” to recognize it and will automatically move it to the Trash the next time it comes in. It won’t get rid of all the spam, but it will reduce the amount in your Inbox significantly. Go to this website to download and install the program. http://www.mozilla.com/thunderbird/

If you need any help installing or setting it up, please do call me on 02 693 4146 during business hours.

So, let’s examine more of these urban myths and scams.

Eight Glasses of Water

Don’t you just love it when people try to tell you what to eat and drink? They will make a sweeping statement and ask you to believe, simply because they say it so persuasively. The controversy over how much water to drink has raged for decades. This urban myth pushes you to overindulge.

Some of the myths circulating in emails include:

• 75% of us are chronically dehydrated.
• In 37% of cases, the thirst mechanism is so weak that it is often mistaken for hunger.
• Even mild dehydration will slow down one's metabolism as much as 3%.
• One glass of water shuts down midnight hunger pangs for almost 100% of the dieters studied.
• Lack of water is the number one trigger of daytime fatigue.
• Preliminary research indicates that 8-10 glasses of water a day could significantly ease back and joint pain for up to 80% of sufferers.
• A mere 2% drop in body water can trigger fuzzy short-term memory, trouble with basic math, and difficulty focusing on the computer screen or on a printed page.
• Drinking 5 glasses of water daily decreases the risk of colon cancer by 45%, plus it can slash the risk of breast cancer by 79%, and one is 50% less likely to develop bladder cancer.

This scam tries to persuade you to call a special DO NOT CALL number to register your mobile phone so that tele-marketers will not call you.

These are a couple of examples of the emails circulating:

JUST A REMINDER... 31 days from today, cell phone numbers are being released to telemarketing companies and you will start to receive sales calls. YOU WILL BE CHARGED FOR THESE CALLS...

To prevent this, call the following number from your cell phone: 888-382-1222. It is the national DO NOT CALL list. It will only take a minute of your time. It blocks your number for five (5) years. PASS THIS ON TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS

A directory of cell phone numbers will soon be published for all consumers to have access to. This will open the doors for solicitors to call you on your cell phones, using up the precious minutes that we pay lots of money for. The Federal Trade Commission has set up a "do not call" list. It is called a cell phone registry. To be included on the "do not call" list, you must call from the number you wish to register. The number is 1-888-382-1222 or you can go to their website at www.donotcall.gov.

Oh boy! The things some people will believe. Let me make this clear. There is NO cell phone registry. You do NOT have to register to escape the depredations of tele-marketers. Do NOT pass the message on to your friends or colleagues. There is NO escape.

The best solution if you do get a phone call from a tele-marketer? Don’t let them waste your time. Hang up on them with a polite “No thank you” as soon as you realize the nature of the call. Don’t engage them in conversation. Don’t let them waste your time. And don’t care about their feelings. They are tele-marketers. They are immune to quick cut-offs.

Oh yeah! We would all like to see this headline, and that is what scammers are counting on. As soon as you open their spam mail they will ask you to download and view a ZIP file containing pictures of the event.

Osama Bin Ladin was found hanged by two CNN journalists early Wednesday evening. As evidence they took several photos, some of which I have included here. As yet, this information has not hit the headlines due to Bush wanting confirmation of his identity but the journalists have released some early photos over the internet…http://24.13.130.125:89/OsamaFoundDead.zip

Although this scam was invented for the Olympic Games years ago, it continues to make the rounds on the internet. It warns you not to open any message with an attachment called Invitation, as it will “burn your computer hard disk”.

Come on! If you believe this, I have a beautiful bridge for sale in Sydney, Australia. Here is the message:

You should be alert during the next days: Do not open any message with an attached file called "Invitation" regardless of who sent it. It is a virus that opens an Olympic Torch which "burns" the whole hard disc C of your computer. This virus will be received from someone who has your e-mail address in his/her contact list, that is why you should send this e-mail to all your contacts.

This is the worst virus announced by CNN, it has been classified by Microsoft as the most destructive virus ever. This virus was discovered by McAfee yesterday, and there is no repair yet for this kind of virus. This virus simply destroys the Zero Sector of the Hard Disc, where the vital information is kept.

SEND THIS E-MAIL TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW, COPY THIS E-MAIL AND SEND IT TO YOUR FRIENDS AND REMEMBER: IF YOU SEND IT TO THEM, YOU WILL BENEFIT ALL OF US

Oooo-k. You are expected to waste time forwarding this email to your friends so that they can partake in this dubious advice as well.

Whenever you see an email urging you to forward (or copy) it to people on your mailing list delete it immediately. Do Not pass it on!

This looks like a scam that preys on your patriotic feelings. Who wouldn’t want to give some aid and comfort to the brave soldiers fighting in the latest US-led war somewhere in the world? It doesn’t matter which war. IBM and Xerox will print out your thank you card and distribute it to members of the armed services.

Well, guess what? This one is True!