E-mail hoaxes

[Creig]

I've about had it with my co-workers who keep forwarding all these "REALLY NEAT, GOTTA TRY THIS" or "WARNING" hoaxes to everybody they know.

Example - Here's one I just received this morning:

Easy way to unlock car with keys inside.

Hannnnnnnnnnnnnndy !!!!

This only applies to cars that can be unlocked by remote button. Should you lock your keys in the car and the spare keys are home. If some one has access to the spare remote have them telephone you on your cell phone. Hold your (or anyone's) cell phone about a foot from your car door and have the other person press the unlock button, hold it near the phone. Your car will unlock. I tried it and it works. Saves someone from having to drive your keys to you. Distance is no object.

I read the e-mail and immediately developed a pounding headache. I waited for it. Sure enough, about 10 minutes later there were half a dozen people talking about how cool this was and wondering why nobody thought of doing this before.

I wearily got up and tried to explain to them that this was yet another hoax e-mail and that it couldn't possibly work. I tried explaining that remote unlockers transmit/receive on radio frequencies and that normal cell phone will only transmit audible sounds. So, I explained, unless you have a "clapper" for your car, this was yet another hoax.

"Not so!" says the crowd, "It sounds like it will work just fine!". "Fine" I said, "Go out and prove me wrong then." So a pair of them whip out their cell phones, one goes over to his car and the other stands at the other end of the parking lot. They are just about to get started when I say "Before you start saying I-told-you-it-would-work, why don't you try getting out of the normal range of the remote unlocker."

"Oh." one says, "I didn't think of that." (*me rolls eyes*)

So one guy actually starts walking down the road 1/2 mile or so and the other stands near the car with his cell phone. At this point I'd had enough and went back inside and continued where I'd left off. About 1/2 hour later I receive a 2nd email from the same person, issuing a retraction of his original email.


Wow, it didn't work. What a shock.


Is anybody else getting these dumb things forwarded to them all the time or am I the only lucky one?

 

[maziwanka]

hahahahhahahaha. this definately qualifies as one of the dumbest things ive ever read

 

[Gunslinger08]

Yes, people in general are gullible morons. People on campus here will actually follow directions in emails from strangers to remove files from their computers.. cause people never lie on the internet.

 

[cronos]

Originally posted by: maziwanka
hahahahhahahaha. this definately qualifies as one of the dumbest things ive ever read

lol. i can't believe too many people will fall for it though.

 

[rh71]

If I get one more email saying that Bill Gates can track "this email" if I forward to people... and pay me for it...

:|

 

[raanemaan]

I remember one where there was a rose on the screen. It asked you to smell it and when you did it turned into a big a$$.

 

[Amused]

E-mail hoaxes are GREAT!! They allow us to see who the real idiots are.

They are like automatic idiot detectors.

 

[kranky]

WHY do so many people keep forwarding these stupid things?!?

Because every day 10,000 more people get on the Internet for the first time. And to them, it's all new. I still get ones that say "forward this to 10 people and a cool picture will pop up on your screen."
:roll:- squared

 

[PingSpike]

Yeah people are stupid. But did you really have to take it upon yourself to be the know-it-all ass guy ruining their stupid fun? I prefer to let people discover their fvck ups on their own, that way they don't resent me for their own stupidity.

I do hate it when I get sent the "new virus alert! oohhh scary!" messages though.

 

[Bryophyte]

Trying to express my feelings on this subject, I got hit with the "you have censored words" message. So I'll just say that I've managed to alienate one moron after another in my efforts to stop this idiocy from propagating.

 

[bugsysiegel]

Originally posted by: Amused
E-mail hoaxes are GREAT!! They allow us to see who the real idiots are.

They are like automatic idiot detectors.

ROFL, true.

 

[So]

Things like this are the reason that I hate people, in general.

 

[ghostman]

I don't mind those kinda of email hoaxes. The only harm is to one's dignity when they realize they're an idiot. I hate the virus-patch-from-microsoft hoaxes and the search-your-computer-and-delete-this-"virus"-file hoaxes. The latter is ridiculous because people keep falling for it, when just the filename gets changed.

 

[Descartes]

Honestly, it's not fair to call these people idiots. Sure, we can all laugh at the technical deficiencies, but the majority of people in business are without fundamental knowledge of physics; indeed, so fundamental that even the simplest understanding would render this idea absurd. The same applies to the "Bill gates monitors email" nonsense. Can you really expect a non-technical person to understand why it's not possible? Can you really expect your average person to have a basic understanding of physics to determine that this is absurd? Of course not.

Don't be so arrogant people.

 

[PanzerIV]

Emails aren't the only ones. There is always some 'tard forwarding them through Yahoo Messenger too like the ones that proclaim your account will be deleted if you don't participate, etc. So ridiculous.

 

[sciencewhiz]

Rather then use your cell phone to extend the range, hold the remote to your chin.

 

[OCNewbie]

Originally posted by: sciencewhiz
Rather then use your cell phone to extend the range, hold the remote to your chin.

LOL, I've seen people doing that quite often now that you mention it.

 

[Zenmervolt]

Originally posted by: Descartes
Honestly, it's not fair to call these people idiots. Sure, we can all laugh at the technical deficiencies, but the majority of people in business are without fundamental knowledge of physics; indeed, so fundamental that even the simplest understanding would render this idea absurd. The same applies to the "Bill gates monitors email" nonsense. Can you really expect a non-technical person to understand why it's not possible? Can you really expect your average person to have a basic understanding of physics to determine that this is absurd? Of course not.

Don't be so arrogant people.

Sorry, but thinking that a car's remote unlocker will work via a telephone is idiocy, pure and simple. All the knowledge necessary to understand why that won't work is covered in low-level high-school classes.

ZV