email chains and petitions
Recently I received an email from a close personal family member.
The email was of course one of those chain mail petitions to the President, demanding that he veto any action to allow social security benefits to illegal immigrants.
I did a quick google and of course discovered that the factual information in the letter was false. (Yes there is such a thing as a false fact)
In any case one of the points made in the email itself shook me pretty good.
The email stated in no uncertain terms that the intent was to "flood" the Presidents email with these petitions and demands.
To be honest that is silly, but it also ILLEGAL!
Essentially, by signing your name and sending the mail along, you are participating in an electronic attack on a government official. That my dear friends is called cyber terrorism, and is quite a "no-no".
I don't expect the FBI to show up and arrest my family and friends, but with the level of hysteria, and magnitude of issues that the government is already dealing with, it may not be such a stretch to think that eventually someone in law enforcement may start to get kinda nasty and try a few test cases just to make a point of publicity that the email petition chain mail is illegal and can be prosecuted.
Let's be smart and strong and STOP before hitting that forward button, do a quick google, and THINK.
I really don't want to be on the radar anymore than I already am. Neither do YOU!
Why doesn't the chain email petition work?
Well, stop and think about it, you get a list of names, add your name, and send it on to 20 people, now there are 20 copies with identical duplicates of every name including yours. Now if they send it to 20 people, there are NOW 400 copies with identical duplicate names. Whoever gets those emails if they were to be of any value would need to strip out all those duplicate names of all those emails, and if the emails DID flood the email server, then how could those names be stripped so that a true count could be made??
See how ridiculous that is?
There are reasons why people fall for this, and it is a common enough thing, "Push the button to feel good".
Like the "EASY" button, it accomplishes absolutely nothing except in a fantasy world of TV ads, and in your psyche.
If you REALLY feel strongly about the issue, and want to really do something constructive, you will have to actually make more of an effort than pushing the forward button on your browser or email screen.
:-)
hugz
45
The email was of course one of those chain mail petitions to the President, demanding that he veto any action to allow social security benefits to illegal immigrants.
I did a quick google and of course discovered that the factual information in the letter was false. (Yes there is such a thing as a false fact)
In any case one of the points made in the email itself shook me pretty good.
The email stated in no uncertain terms that the intent was to "flood" the Presidents email with these petitions and demands.
To be honest that is silly, but it also ILLEGAL!
Essentially, by signing your name and sending the mail along, you are participating in an electronic attack on a government official. That my dear friends is called cyber terrorism, and is quite a "no-no".
I don't expect the FBI to show up and arrest my family and friends, but with the level of hysteria, and magnitude of issues that the government is already dealing with, it may not be such a stretch to think that eventually someone in law enforcement may start to get kinda nasty and try a few test cases just to make a point of publicity that the email petition chain mail is illegal and can be prosecuted.
Let's be smart and strong and STOP before hitting that forward button, do a quick google, and THINK.
I really don't want to be on the radar anymore than I already am. Neither do YOU!
Why doesn't the chain email petition work?
Well, stop and think about it, you get a list of names, add your name, and send it on to 20 people, now there are 20 copies with identical duplicates of every name including yours. Now if they send it to 20 people, there are NOW 400 copies with identical duplicate names. Whoever gets those emails if they were to be of any value would need to strip out all those duplicate names of all those emails, and if the emails DID flood the email server, then how could those names be stripped so that a true count could be made??
See how ridiculous that is?
There are reasons why people fall for this, and it is a common enough thing, "Push the button to feel good".
Like the "EASY" button, it accomplishes absolutely nothing except in a fantasy world of TV ads, and in your psyche.
If you REALLY feel strongly about the issue, and want to really do something constructive, you will have to actually make more of an effort than pushing the forward button on your browser or email screen.
:-)
hugz
45
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