Arthur Shipkowski: Vanity Homepage

Not forwarding that message might improve your life!

Introduction

Back when I was at college, I wrote an article for the college newspaper about email hoaxes, forwards, and other annoyances. This came after a flurry of hoaxes filled my mailbox during a particular week.

Now, it's a few years later, and the problem still remains. So I present this somewhat updated form of the article for your perusal. I know there are other sites that say the same thing, but I figure the more people complain about this problem, the sooner it'll go away.

Not forwarding that message might improve your life!

By Arthur Shipkowski

It seems a certainty. Once a month, I will sit down to check my email and find a warning claiming reading email would make my computer explode, or a letter claiming to improve my sex life if I forward it to ten people. People pass these things on to me, certain they're warning me of doom or guarding their own sex lives, figuring it doesn't cost them a thing. They're wrong.

Hoaxes are the most common. A perennial favorite is the "Good Times" virus hoax, which claims to protect us from a message that will destroy our data if opened (email does not run programs at the present time - anything you receive cannot harm you unless you open an attachment, with the exception of Microsoft email software such as Outlook Express and Outlook). The hoaxes all sound legitimate, but lack references that one can check back upon. Sometimes, they will claim an FCC warning instead, though the FCC does not issue warnings on viruses. They also use technical sounding language to trick innocent users into forwarding them. They urge users to forward these messages, never suggesting it might be worthwhile to check with the local computer security team. The user forwards the message, feeling they're doing a good deed.

However, chain letters have become more common. In the past, chain letters were largely pyramid schemes sent by mail. The request to send a dollar to each person on a list and the hassle of addressing and stamping the envelopes limited them. But with email, not only have the pyramid schemes appeared, but many others. Two of the most common include the various forms of the American Cancer Society chain letter (claiming the American Cancer Society will donate 3 cents for every forward) and the "Bill Gates test message" (which claimed to send out $1000 to forwarders). Despite questionable claims, people forward them. The letters all involve a hook, a threat, and a request. The hook gets your attention - getting a thousand dollars from Microsoft, for instance. The threat either tells you what terrible things will happen if you don't forward it (ex. bad luck), or plays on greed or sympathy (3 cents for the little girl dying). The request is often simply to forward it to as many people as possible. Some occasionally involve money as well. Note that chain letters are as illegal over the Internet as they are over the US Postal Service.

That's nice, you say, but I'm not hurting anyone by forwarding these letters. Unfortunately, the ease with which a chain letter or hoax is sent hides all the costs. The first cost is misinformation about security problems and legitimate organizations. The second is the computer time and storage space required for transmission. If you forward a one-kilobyte chain letter to ten people, and each person forwards it to ten more, by six "hops" later, you will have consumed nearly a gigabyte of total disk space!

This consumption is the same reason for mass opposition to unsolicited bulk email, usually called SPAM - a message to thousands of users consumes resources and bandwidth that could be used for other purposes.

So, what should you do when you get a warning, chain letter, or even SPAM? Forward it with full headers on (done in the 'pine' program by pressing 'h' before you forward) to the 'abuse' email address. Do not send it to anyone else at Kettering. The time you spend forwarding the message would be better sent verifying the legitimacy of the message, thereby giving us all better connection speed.