just another hoax
I received yet another in my email inbox just a few minutes ago. This one features Ashley Flores, a supposedly missing 13-year-old. The picture is haunting. The message, purportedly by Ashley’s mother, is heartbreaking. There’s only one problem. It’s fictitious.
All it took was 30 seconds on www.snopes.com to discover the truth.
Well-meaning people fall for these scams all the time. Most of the hoax messages appeal to the recipient’s greed, sense of outrage, altruism or ego.
But they can be dangerous.
In this case, I don’t think there’s a computer virus or worm or trojan embedded in the message. But you can never be sure.
So it’s a great idea if you receive one of these ubiquitous messages to take 30 seconds and check it out.
I tried to respond to all on the email address list, but my server couldn’t send it because there were too many recipients. Likely thousands …
Actually, it’s a good idea to go to snopes, the most prominent of the debunking web sites, regularly. I get an email update from the site once a week.
It’s a good reminder that you may be more vulnerable on the Internet than most places in the real world.
Tags: email, hoax
Loading ...
