[Corky/Max]

[B]Someone sent me this info in an email and I think it is a good message to send on here:
Advice from Snopes

Here is a nice little tidbit of information that came my way this morning, so if any of you are wondering why I won't return something to you that said something like 'if I don't get this back I'll....or, 'See how many flowers or hugs you can get back', or 'Forward this to 10 people in the next 5 mins. or something bad will happen to you', etc.

The following is why I will not send them back.
Advice from Snopes.com <http://snopes.com/>

1) Any time you see an E-Mail that says forward this on to '10' of your friends, or sign this petition, or you'll get bad luck, good luck, or whatever, it almost always has an E-Mail tracker program attached that tracks the cookies and E-Mails of those folks you forward to.

The host sender is getting a copy each time it gets forwarded and then is able to get lists of 'active' E-Mails to use in SPAM E-Mails, or sell to other spammers.
2) Almost all E-Mails that ask you to add your name and forward on to others are similar to that mass letter years ago that asked people to send business cards to the little kid in Florida who wanted to break the Guinness Book of Records for the most cards.

All it was, and all any of this type of E-Mail is, is a way to get names and 'cookie ' tracking information for telemarketers and spammers - - to validate active E-Mail accounts for their own profitable purposes. CORKY/MAX: Keep this paragraph in mind also when thinking about voting for some 'member's' dog in the dog picture contests!!!


You can do your friends and family members a GREAT favor (PLEASE) by sending this information to them; you will be providing a service to your friends, and will be rewarded by not getting thousands of spam E-Mails in the future!


If you have been sending out (FORWARDING) the above kinds of E-Mail, now you know why you get so much SPAM!


Do yourself a favor and STOP adding your name(s) to those types of listings regardless how inviting they might sound! You may think you are supporting a GREAT cause, but you are NOT in the long run. Instead, you will be getting tons of junk mail later! Plus, we are helping the spammers get rich! Let's don't make it easy for them!


Also: E-Mail petitions are NOT acceptable to Congress or any other organization. To be acceptable, petitions must have a signed signature and full address of the person signing the petition.


Read the full story here:




snopes.com: Internet Petitions

[MrAndrew]

Thanks for the heads up! Useful info; I've never been fond of mailing listings or mass-forwarded stuff.

[cherylmartin]

Thanks for the information. I often wondered.

[lil mutt]

That's very clearing, I received a lot or messages like that... and so many fall from it. Glad I always refuse them. It's just too terrible that they sometimes include deaths and bad lucks.