If you are a regular user of e-mail, particularly the free public varieties, chances are that you are being spammed even as you read this. You will probably open your mail box to find mails from funny names like "customer care" "katina" "credit repair center" and "imoudi" etc. offering you products ranging from drugs for increasing your sexual appetite to free meals from a restaurant in a country you probably will never visit. Why does anybody think you need unlimited sensational ringtones, or reliable methods of stock (sic) analysis? One may understand the "fully verifiable university diplomas and degrees". After all, short cuts are still in vogue. But how do you explain the gift of a 42 inch plasma TV just-for answering aSurvey.
Some will announce you have just won a state-of the- art laptop computer in a competition you never participated in, others will even offer you a free loan, a job, a husband, a wife, even diapers! There is also the religious variety spamming miracles, bibles and cures. Happily, our Muslim brethren are missingin this dubious action -Iets hope we can keep it that way. And lets not even discuss the potent 419 mails asking you to provide details of your account number for a fraud. But the one that takes the cake are the ones that seek to introduce software to help you fight spam! Watch out though, if you enjoy reading sporn occasionally, just for the laughs.
Embedded in some of these offers might be a virus waiting to attack your PC or a software seeking to steal your secrets. Spam, simply defined, is "unsolicited, usually commercial e-mail sent to a large number of addresses". As the dictionary further tells us, "the word spam is taken from a skit on the British television series in which chanting of the word Spam (trademark for a canned meat product) overrides the other dialogue". But, for those who have suffered an attack, this irritating mailbox invasion isanything but palatable. Closely related tospam are chain mails. E-mails worming their way through the internet, seeking to diffuse compassion, jokes, and lies.
Did you receive the one about the mind-boggling Palace. of an oil sheik? That mail was originated in America and featured golden bathrooms, expansive bedrooms, and a billionaires dream garage. The aim was to fan theoutrage already ignited by 9/11 by letting Americans "see" how Middle East sheiks were feeding fat on petrodollars at the expense of hardworking Americans. Well, it turns out that the ﾓ palace" is actually the Emirates Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi! Chain mails come in a great variety. The ones that try compassionate blackmail however seem most popular.
They ask you to read a message and forward it to five, ten or more people. They tell you that the pictured subject (O cancer-stricken woman, a misshapen child, on accidented orphan, whatever) has just days to live, and will get a certain sum of money from Microsoft or Yahoo! for each person that you forward the mail to (Dont you wonder why microyahoo or softoogle doesnt just hand over the cash to the victim?) They either worn of dire consequences if you dont forward the mail, or accuse you of not having a heart if you neglect to do so. Many a recipient (who would not normally be bothered to do a simple act of charity to a hungry neighbour or family) quickly forward the nauseating images to their contacts, feeling smug for having done a good deed by just a few clicks of the mouse.
Peoples' reactions to chain mails and spam fell more about them than some might imagine. For sure, not all chain mails are jokes or fakes. Some of them real situations, which make them even more difficult to deal with. For instance, what would you do if you receive the one about a so-called Christian minister who supposedly shamed a Muslim cleric in a debate that took place in a US prison? This moil had been circulating around the world for years.
Christian "friends" hurriedly forwarded it to Muslim colleagues in glee. Many a Muslim corporate executive, had been assaulted by this mail, depicting Muslims as bloodthirsty buffoons whose religion asks them to kill all Christians within a shouting distance. Well, it turns out that the ﾓ minlster" who originated the mail actually lied. Those who were present at the event disclosed to breakthechain.org (see below) that no such debate took place, and what more, that the so called "imam" was actually a newly converted Muslim prisoner who was conscripted into presenting the Islamic viewpoint since prison officials could not find anyone else (in the whole of America ?) to tell them about Islaam.
(A brother who received the mail tells how he wrote an instant rebuttal and copied it to other colleagues who had received the mail. One of them, who had apparently earlier had a good laugh at the mail quickly wrote back, angrily demanding to be removed from the mailing list. Was that fear or hypocrisy?) It is a good thing that the service providers are working at eliminating spam. We wish them well. We should help them, too.
According to breakthechain.orq (a website dedicated to researching and exposing falsehood in chain mails), you simply delete mails from people you do not know, without reading them". But chain mails would not be That easy to wipe out, apparently. How do you deal with chain mails from people you know, some you even respect? Breakthechain.org asks you to question everything. "Dont want the junk! If you forward chain letters, stop! If others send them to you, stop them! The more junk you send, the more you will get.
Sending or receiving chain letters increases your exposure to spam, scams and other junk mail". This advice refers to chain mails. But it would also apply to all other form of junk - electronic, physical, spiritual or political currently in circulation, on-net and off. If you dont want junk, dont pass it on. It's that simple!
This article was culled from the publications of Deen Communication Limited