Don't you hate those e-mails that keep circulating with urban legends?

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

I just got one saying "Cancer Update from Johns Hopkins." Right...

Last time she forwarded me the e-mail about the driving rules and how cell phones are banned as of 7/1/07. I almost got fooled by that one because the actual date in CA is 08, but I figured maybe my memory wasn't that good. Then my coworkers started talking about how it is 7/1/07 and you can only drive 3mph above the speed limit. Of course that one got me thinking again so I hit up snopes.com.

In the beginning my mom used to be adamant about these things especially the cell phone and gas station stories. Then there was the water bottle in sun in the car thing and while she used to reuse water bottles like crazy, we now have stacks of costco water packs in our garage.

After showing her snopes she now tends to believe me more now when I tell her these are urban legends. Now she's just forwarding them to me to find out the truth of these emails... but of course I see the send list also goes to a bunch of her friends. Way to circulate false information!

 

[Joemonkey]

Yeah, my mom does the same thing, I just reply with links from snopes and other sites refuting the urban legends. Hopefully she'll start researching before hitting the forward button, but i doubt it

 

[ultimatebob]

I just reply to them with the related link on Snopes. After 5 or 6 Snopes replies, they usually get the point and stop sending them to me

 

[moshquerade]

Originally posted by: Joemonkey
Yeah, my mom does the same thing, I just reply with links from snopes and other sites refuting the urban legends. Hopefully she'll start researching before hitting the forward button, but i doubt it

i do the same thing. i'll reply with an email saying: "Untrue" and copy the snopes link. then she'll call me and say, "i didn't know that wasn't true."

doh!

 

[JRich]

I filter FW:FW:

 

[LongCoolMother]

my mom does the same thing. the real problem is that she actually heeds the advice in the emails. She no longer puts anything plastic in the microwave. She also insists that the hurricane pictures from katrina are real.

 

[Queasy]

My sister does this constantly. I just reply back to everyone with a link to Snopes and the text debunking what it was that was sent.

 

[George P Burdell]

Every email from my family that contains "FW:" goes into the spam folder.

 

[fredhe12]

Originally posted by: ultimatebob
I just reply to them with the related link on Snopes. After 5 or 6 Snopes replies, they usually get the point and stop sending them to me

This is the best way to deal with friends that think they're helping everyone out by forwarding these emails. I used to reply only to the sender, but now I delight in copying everyone on it.

I hate those things.

 

[KoolDrew]

I just reply back to everyone with a link to Snopes and the text debunking what it was that was sent.

 

[iamaelephant]

I carefully explained to my mum why it's a bad idea to forward these emails and why 99% of them are BS and asked her to please stop sending them to me. Haven't had one since.

 

[AmigaMan]

Originally posted by: LongCoolMother
my mom does the same thing. the real problem is that she actually heeds the advice in the emails. She no longer puts anything plastic in the microwave. She also insists that the hurricane pictures from katrina are real.

you mean there wasn't a hurricane katrine?!?!? WTF!?!?! It's another bush administration conspiracy, I KNEW IT!

Seriously though, what katrina hurricane pics weren't real? I'm curious now.

 

[LongCoolMother]

Originally posted by: AmigaMan

Originally posted by: LongCoolMother
my mom does the same thing. the real problem is that she actually heeds the advice in the emails. She no longer puts anything plastic in the microwave. She also insists that the hurricane pictures from katrina are real.

you mean there wasn't a hurricane katrine?!?!? WTF!?!?! It's another bush administration conspiracy, I KNEW IT!

Seriously though, what katrina hurricane pics weren't real? I'm curious now.

sorry about that. should have elaborated. There were some really amazing, close pictures of a hurricane circling around on the web. Also some from space satellites. While spectacular, they WEREN'T from hurricane katrina. It's actually somewhere on snopes if you look. Some cool looking hurricane clouds. Real pictures, wrong description.

 

[shopbruin]

i did it once to someone, and they replied back "how credible is this snopes site?"

arghhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

so then i linked them up to the email being debunked in a newspaper column.

"do you believe this newspaper?"

WHY DO YOU BELIEVE YOUR EMAIL!?!?

 

[LtPage1]

Originally posted by: freesia39
WHY DO YOU BELIEVE YOUR EMAIL!?!?

:laugh:
Yeah, I do a reply-all telling them how everything they sent was completely untrue. If you don't skimp on the "I-Can't-Believe-You're-So-Gullible" insinuations, they stop. I don't get any of that crap from anyone anymore.

 

[Mo0o]

i usually just reply with a snopes link.

 

[ForumMaster]

when i set up a computer for my grandparents, i immediately regretted it since my grandmother immediately started sending me every thing she could. at first i would simply delete but it just didn't stop. so i do two things: i asked her to stop and, for the most part, she has. and two, using gmail, i create a label for all email from her address, mark it read and put it in a folder. then occasionally, i empty the folder. problem solved.