The one thing that separates the Internet community
from the community at large is that we react. While the masses may approve of
a policy or disapprove of a law, they tend to remain silent.
The Internet
community, on the other hand, will take arms against perceived injustice. In this
the weapon if choice is Email and the offenders will soon find themselves swept
away by a flood of protest.
It is probably the only way we can protect
ourselves against the evil influence of corporate "soft" money. Bogus Emails are
a menace. These false alerts dull our reflexes and inhibit our ability to react.
We all know the fable of "the boy who cried wolf." These phony causes
are cries of wolf, and when a true problem arises, we, like the shepherds of the
fable, may fail to defend our sheep.
How can we protect ourselves against
these false alerts? A valid Internet alert requires three things: a return Email
address, a reference URL and a date. If you are creating an alert you must include
them. If you are passing an alert along you must check them. Without them, or
other external verification, you must assume the mail to be fake.
A valid
Email address must be included in the body of the letter. You cannot just rely
on the address in your "From:" field. As the Email is passed around the Internet
it will eventually be deleted and forgotten. A Yahoo, Hotmail or other free address
will simply not do. Anyone can set one of these up in a moment and claim to be
the Queen of Sheba.
A reference URL is important too. Just about anything
we need to know about will be posted somewhere. The most likely source for this
information is one of the many web news services, but some special issues like
fighting spam or Internet free speech have their own sites.
The U.S.
Department of Energy Internet Hoax Page is also a good place to find out about
any current hoaxes. Finally a date or, better yet, an expiry date should be included
in any web alert. Remember, the original send date will be lost as the missal
weaves its way across the web. It is important to know when to stop reacting to
an alert.
These things tend to have a life of their own and often continue
for months after the issue is resolved. The most recent mistake I made was a valid
alert -- valid, that is, about 8 months ago.
In his article "Hoax, They're
out to get you on the Net", Matthew Broersma says: Another way to tell truth from
fiction in the Email world is simply by paying attention to the way the message
is written.
Konrad Roeder, a systems engineer and Internet columnist,
points out that every hoax Email exists primarily to replicate itself as many
times as possible, and therefore, it will always include two elements: first,
it will provoke an emotional response, and second, it will urge readers to act
on their emotions by forwarding the message to as many people as possible. "In
a sense, what's happening is it's a thought virus," Roeder said. "They affect
you, making you feel something, and then get you to pass [the message] on to other
people."
Let me share an Email I received from a close friend recently:
We are a fourth grade class at Little Prairie School in Windtunnel, Illinois.
Our class has 16 boys and 7 girls. Our school has 360 students. We decided to
map an Email project for our school because we were curious to see how far Email
can travel by Internet in the United States. Our project will last just two months,
beginning January 22, 1999 and ending March 22, 1999 We would like your help.
We ask that: 1. If you receive our Email letter, could you Email our class back
telling us your location. 2. Also, please send our class letter on to 2 more people.
Our Email address is lpsfourthgrade@yahoo.com Is this letter valid? I do not know
but there are warning signs.
Although the period was about 2 months,
I received it just 2 days before the deadline and the earliest recipient I could
find was just 2 days earlier. This timeline prevents checking its validity via
US Snail. There is no URL reference even though most schools have a web page,
especially a school that would run this type of experiment.
This teacher has
not given us his or her name. Finally, the clincher for me, is that the only address
is at Yahoo.com. Not only is this a fly-by- night address but this type of letter
is specifically banned by Yahoo's rules of conduct. So, what's the verdict? Is
this just some young teacher showing her web inexperience?
Perhaps,
but it could also be a savvy spammer using our vulnerability to children to build
his mailing list. There were close to 200 names on the copy I received -- you
be the judge. One final note to help us in the fight against spam: When you send
letters, even valid letters, out to a large group of people, you never know where
they will end up.
Someone down the pipeline may inadvertently forward
it to a spammer, giving them a list of all your friends. Always include your mailing
list under the "BCC:" field not the "To:" field. BCC -- Blind Carbon Copy -- will
still distribute your mail, but no-one who receives it will see any mail address
but their own.
References: Hoax! They're out to get you on the
Net By Matthew Broersma. October 25, 1997 12:29 PM PST ZDNN Some known hoaxes:
A.I.D.S. Hoax, AOL Riot June 1,1998, AOL V4.0 Cookie, AOL4FREE, Bill Gates Hoax,
Bud Frogs Screen Saver, Death Ray, Deeyenda, Disney Giveaway Hoax, E-mail or get
a Virus, Ghost PENPAL GREETINGS!, Good Times Spoof, Good Times, Internet Access
Charge, Internet Cleanup Day, Irina, Join the Crew, Make Money Fast, NaughtyRobot,
PKZ300, WIN A HOLIDAY.
Ed Churnside is a freelance writer,
programmer and web designer. While he has written articles on subjects as diverse
as Internet etiquette, astronomy, woodworking and bunnies, Ed, a self-confessed
computer wizard, is probably best unknown for his programming. "About 50% of Americans
have used programs I designed," he says enigmatically and grins. Winner of the
prestigious Atari Consumer Products Award, Ed now spends his time writing articles
and short fiction, programming shareware and freeware, and maintaining several
web sites. He can be reached at Wulf@DragonQuest.com or via his website at http://www.DragonQuest.com
