Thursday, January 5, 2012

Latest Email Hoaxes - Current Internet Scams


Every week we get many email forwards : giving advice of various things,health related precautions, foods which are bad for health,'if you forward this mail to 100 people, somebody will get xx dollar' etc.

I have found 99% of them are myth and hoaxes. So one should verify it in the website mentioned below before fowarding:


Hoax-Slayer is dedicated to debunking email hoaxes, thwarting Internet scammers, combating spam, and educating web users about email and Internet security issues.

Hoax-Slayer allows Internet users to check the veracity of common email hoaxes and aims to counteract criminal activity by publishing information about common types of Internet scams.

Hoax-Slayer also includes anti-spam tips, computer and email security information, articles about true email forwards, and much more. New articles are added to the Hoax-Slayer website every week.

To give one example :

Forward Message to Help Severely Burned Child Hoax

Summary:

Email, complete with photographs of a badly burned child, claims that 11 cents will be donated to the child's family every time the message is sent to others (Full commentary below.)

Status:

False

Example:(Submitted, May 2006)
I never forward chain mails , but this one i cannot say keep it ot myself.

It is difficult to look at the picks.....its ok if you can't.....but pls forward

I AM FORWARDING COS IT'S FOR A GOOD CAUSE.

if u scare easily or if your squeamish don't see the pictures, just Forward to all the Persons in your address book and you would be helping out this little Girl To Get Better and start living a normal life!!!! You may not want to look at the pictures but please pass this Around To Help them. Our prayers will surely make a diff. For all what is worth. I do not know how they will get money, but At least our prayers will.

This photo attached is of a little child that has been severely burnt (literally from head to toe). His/her parents cannot afford to get the bandages and ointments necessary for the treatment so every time this email goes out they will be given 11 cents towards assisting these parents. I don't know the full story because everything was Portuguese, but that doesn't matter the only thing is this email must keep going around as much as possible. Thank you!

Note:
This message comes with 8 photographs of a severely burned child. Due to their particularly disturbing nature, these pictures have not been included.



Commentary:
This foolish hoax email claims that recipients can help the family of a severely burned child pay medical expenses simply by forwarding the message. The email arrives with several photographs showing a child with what appears to be horrific burn injuries. According to the message, 11 cents will be donated to the family every time the message is passed on.

The message has no information about the identity of the child depicted in the photographs. Nor does it explain how the child was burned or where the injuries occurred. The message claims that the "full story" was written in Portuguese. However, at this point, I have been unable to verify this claim or discover the true identity of the child.

Regardless of who or where the child is, forwarding this message will do nothing at all to help her or her family. Like many similar hoax messages, it makes the completely ridiculous claim that money will be donated every time the message is sent to others.

In fact, this example is even more absurd than others of its ilk. Others at least make an effort to convince recipients that the claim is legitimate by naming a company or organization that will donate the money. This one, however, would have us believe that every time the message is sent, 11 cents will be donated apparently out of thin air.

Even in the hugely improbable event that some unnamed entity had agreed to participate in such an exercise, there is simply no reliable way of tracking an individual email message that may well be forwarded many thousands of times. That is, it would be impossible to work out how much money the silent benefactor would be obligated to donate.

To reiterate, although it may possibly be true that the family of this unknown child is in need of financial assistance in order to cover medical bills, forwarding this email message will do absolutely nothing to help them. Any message that claims that donations are somehow dependent on how many times the message is sent to others is almost certainly a hoax.

Hoaxes that base their nonsensical claims on stories of sick or injured children are especially reprehensible. Please do not give continued life to such hoaxes by forwarding them to others.

A similar hoax message capitalizes on the true case of little Polish girl Ola Kuczma (Alexandra) who was badly burned in a house fire in 2005.



No comments:

Chronological order

Followers