JaBbA's Hut - Hoaxes

The Egg Analogy

nospam@example.com (JaBbA) — Tue, 02 May 2006 11:46:15 -0400

I was forwarded another email with another dumb idea - that somehow if we buy only half the gas we usually do each time it will "back up" the system and cause prices to fall.

I actually didn't find it on snopes (I submitted it), but it is on BreakTheChain.org and other places. I won't repeat it here, but the email goes into this long explanation on how a farmer caused eggs to come down in price by buying 2 eggs a day instead of a dozen a week.

This one is dumber than most, simply because of the obvious fact - if you buy only half the gas, you'll have to make twice as many trips to the gas station. Unless, of course, you also cut your driving in half! Since most people spend money on coffee, gum and snacks while they're filling their cars, the gas stations would LOVE it if you made twice as many trips.

The only way to make prices fall is to use less gas.

Or get the Republican Oil Machine out of office.

Boycott Gasoline? Again?

nospam@example.com (JaBbA) — Fri, 14 Apr 2006 11:21:05 -0400

This one's been circulating for years, but with gas prices the way they are, it's really starting to heat up. Unfortunately, it's completely bogus, just like every other "Send this to everyone you know" email. (edited for brevity)

GAS WAR - an idea that WILL work

This was originally sent by a retired Coca Cola
executive It came from one of his engineer buddies
who retired from Halliburton. It's worth your
consideration.

...

Phillip Hollsworth offered this good idea. This makes
MUCH MORE SENSE than the "don't buy gas on a certain
day" campaign that was going around last April or May!
The oil companies just laughed at that because they
knew we wouldn't continue to "hurt" ourselves by
refusing to buy gas. It was more of an inconvenience
to us than it was a problem for them. BUT, whoever
thought of this idea, has come up with a plan that can
really work. Please read on and join with us!

...

I am sending this note to 30 people. If each of us
send it to at least ten more (30 x 10 = 300) ... and
those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x 10 =
3,000)...and so on, by the time the message reaches
the sixth group of people, we will have reached over
THREE MILLION consumers

....

If this makes sense to you, please pass this message
on. I suggest that we not buy from EXXON/MOBIL UNTIL
THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES TO THE $1.30 RANGE AND KEEP
THEM DOWN. THIS CAN REALLY WORK

Please Forward on and Re-Post! Can't hurt to try

Remember, check Snopes. They usually have the straight scoop. In this case:

Economics Prof. Pat Welch of St. Louis University says any boycott of "bad guy" gasoline in favor of "good guy" brands would have some unintended (and unhappy) results.

. . . Welch says the law of supply and demand is set in stone. "To meet the sudden demand," he says, "the good guys would have to buy gasoline wholesale from the bad guys, who are suddenly stuck with unwanted gasoline."

So motorists would end up . . . paying more for it, because they'd be buying it at fewer stations.

And yes, oil companies do buy and sell from one another. Mike Right of AAA Missouri says, "If a company has a station that can be served more economically by a competitor's refinery, they'll do it."

Right adds, "In some cases, gasoline retailers have no refinery at all. Some convenience-store chains sell a lot of gasoline â and buy it all from somebody else's refinery."

But What's the Harm?

nospam@example.com (JaBbA) — Wed, 09 Nov 2005 12:04:19 -0500

This email has been making the rounds:

Check this out:

This is upsetting but I thought I should pass it along. Check your
drivers license. Now you can see anyone's Driver's License on the
Internet, including your own! I just searched for mine and there it
was.. . picture and all!! Thanks Homeland Security! Where are our
rights?

I definitely removed mine. I suggest you do the same.
Go to the web site and check it out. Just enter your name, city and
state to see if yours is on file. After your license comes on the
screen, click the box marked "Please Remove". This will remove it
from public viewing, but not from law enforcement.

It's followed by a URL Go to the URL, and you get a screen including this form:

Seems safe enough, just name, state and city, right? And it's a joke...

So why has it been reported as a Phishing site? Why is it blocked by the Netcraft Toolbar?

Well, think about it. You have just

- Given someone some information about yourself
- Shown yourself to be willing to click on links in emails sent to you

Spammers and Phishers have a LOT of information about you. You think they can't link that info you just gave to your email address? Dream on. I'd almost guarantee that spreading this hoax is helping spammers build better, more effective lists. And I wouldn't be suprised if a lot of people doing this find themselves the target of a Phishing attack - using a bank specifically in your city.

DON'T forward jokes, you never know what's behind them.

And another famous one...

nospam@example.com (JaBbA) — Fri, 01 Apr 2005 09:50:06 -0500

Just for fun, I hit the randomize button on Snopes once in a while to get a giggle. Yesterday, I happened to get the link to the Urban Legend about the Bride/Groom who stops the wedding at the altar.

Then, today, I find that exact email in the SPAM queue.

Pretty funny.



Do you think we might see one of those MasterCard  "Priceless" commercials out of this? Huh? 



Elegant wedding for 300 family and guests = $32,000 

Photographers for the wedding = $3,000 

Deluxe Honeymoon accommodations in Maui for 2 weeks = $8,500 



The look on everyone's faces when they see the 8x10 glossy of the bride humping the best man 

      .........  Priceless.

Applebee's. How long will this stuff live?

nospam@example.com (JaBbA) — Fri, 01 Apr 2005 09:19:28 -0500

Just caught a copy of the Applebee's hoax. This thing's been around forever.

Remember, always check snopes.com.

In this case, you could even check the Applebees's site itself.

So, Donna G, you wasted my time and the time of the 13 people you sent it to.

Of course, Gary P wasted your time and the time of another 13 people (and all these people are now going to get a copy of any virus ANY of these people get, since they now all have each other's addresses).

Gary got it from Jeff C, who was as gullible as anyone but at least only sent it to Gary.

Jeff got it from the Habersham County Fire Department ! Good to see our civil servants are using government computers to send email hoaxes to 9 other people, including the Habersham County Landfill!

The Fire Department got it from David C, along with 9 other victims.

David got it from jwoody. jwoody listed 9 people to send it to.

She got it from Michael O. He sent it to 8 people.

Donna B sent it to 9 people.

Denise sent it to a mailing list she keeps for forwarding all the really valuable stuff she gets in email. I wonder when she'll realize she's never actually gotten anything. At least she didn't send everyone a list of email addresses.

She got it from Tricia L. , who sent it to 12 people.

She got it from Diane, who got it from Mike, who got it from Arnie.

Who got it from Kelly.

Who got it from Brenda.

Brenda, along with 9 other people, got it from Jane.

Gary sent it to 10 people.

Sandra sent it to 18 people, but at least she copied and pasted the email itself, rather than just hitting the forward button. So she actually put EFFORT into hoaxing her friends.

So that's 126 people I actually know of who have gotten this email. The amazing amount of time wasted blows my mind.

Oh, and SOMEONE corrected "Bill Palmer's" misspelling of "Applebees" !



Subject: Applebee's - don't delete - enjoy



    My name is Bill Palmer, founder of Applebee's. In an attempt to get our

    name out to more people in the rural communities where we are not

    currently located, we are offering a $50 gift certificate to anyone who

    forwards this email to 9 of their friends. Just send this email to them

    and you will receive an email back with a confirmation number to claim

    your gift certificate.



    Sincerely

    Bill Palmer

    Founder of Applebee's Visit us at: www.applebees.com



    Hey guys,

    DON'T DELETE THIS EMAIL

    It really works, I tried it and got my Gift certificate confirmation

    number in 3 minutes.

Save an dying girl. By forwarding email.

nospam@example.com (JaBbA) — Thu, 24 Mar 2005 12:12:59 -0500

Yeah, this will work.

She used to be Jessica Mydek, but she's been Tamara Martin since 1997. But it's still a hoax.

Damn, people are gullible. It's just so amazingly obvious why criminals are making millions hoaxing people.

Kevin Meiser, wherever you are, you IDIOT! You sent this hoax to 96 people, and I'll bet a total of more than an hour of work time was used up with mail administrators having to pull it out of their SPAM queues and determine that it's not work-related and delete it.

OK Listen.

I Just Spent 13 hours Getting Screen Names So That I Could Help a Little Girl So Read The Bottom
This isn't a chain letter...

OK everyone.

This isn't a chain letter,but a chance for all of us to save a little girl that's dying of a serious and fatal form of cancer.

Please send this to everyone you know...

Or don't know at that.

This little girl has 6 months left to live,and as her dying
wish,she wanted to send a chain letter telling everyone to live their life to the fullest,since she never will.

She'll never make it to prom,graduate from high school, or get married and have a family of her own.

But by you sending this to as many people as possible, you can give her and her family a little hope,because with every name that this is sent to,the American cancer society will donate 6 cents per name to her treatment and recovery plan.

One guy sent this to 500 people!

So,I know that everyone can send it to at least 5 or 6. Come on everyone...

And if you're too darn selfish to waste 10-15 minutes scrolling this and forwarding it to EVERYONE, (more than one person):you're one sick puppy,and two:just
think it could be you one day...

And it's not even your $money$, just your time.

I know that ya'll will impress me!

Hello.

My name is Tamara Martin and I have severe lung cancer due to second hand smoke. This chain was a final attend to get me healthy again.

Every letter sent gets 6 cents.

Please send this to 10 people. (by the way for those who take 2 minutes to send this, what comes around goes around.) Ps we need 500 more

Penny Brown strikes again

nospam@example.com (JaBbA) — Wed, 12 Jan 2005 16:44:05 -0500

Well, my filters picked up another Penny Brown email today. I don't specifically look for them, but I get them when they have been forwarded so many times the MIME boundaries get all messed up.

Every single person who forwarded this on did so with all the email addresses in the To: line. If I was a spammer, this would be a gold mine of HUNDREDS of email addresses.

This was was apparently restarted on Dec 16th by Wil Agresta

Who sent it to Susan Cockburn

Who sent it to Ed Brooks (along with more than 100 other addresses, half of which were FAX machines)
Who sent it to Stacey Wilson
Who sent it to Michelle Tubbs
Who sent it to 'Crystal'
Who sent it to Bob Giegerich
who sent it to 'camps157'
Who sent it to JOHN WILLIAMS M.D.
Who sent it to farley
Who sent it to Kathy Lee
Who sent it to Kurt Massey
Who sent it to Lyle Greenman
Who sent it to Holly Gold
Who sent it to LUVNUMBERS
Who sent it to AnnTeicher
Who sent it to JennyKut
Who sent it to Papertime6
Who sent it to AVG333
Who sent it to GINANNONE6
Who sent it to McAmyG
Who sent it to my filters.

Remember, these are only the people in the direct line to me. There were literally hundreds of email addresses listed on this forwarded email.

People can be so dumb.

Make it painful, I say

nospam@example.com (JaBbA) — Wed, 13 Oct 2004 13:24:03 -0400

The owner of SmartBot.Net was trying to keep his other businesses, including a nightclub called Plum Crazy, from being attached by the Feds while they go after his spyware business.

But his own General Manager has now confirmed that he did SmartBot.Net business in the club.

BAM! gone. (Well, actually, Seismic Entertainment filed Chapter 7 last week. But regardless, the Feds are getting serious. Finally.)

These guys deserve NO mercy. Take it all away, leave them destitute. They're no better than any other scammer.

Oh, and he's a known Spammer, too. Creep.

Talk about coincidence

nospam@example.com (JaBbA) — Wed, 22 Sep 2004 14:29:20 -0400

This is pretty funny.

I just got done doing a presentation on Internet threats to the executives of my company. Part of my presentation is on hoaxes and the problems they create. The first picture I use is "Penny Brown".

I get back to my desk and check my filters. In the MIME Parse Failure filters (because it has been forwarded SO many times) I find the exact same "Penny Brown" email.

Actually, it was forwarded so may times and so badly that the email had 3 copies of the picture.

Remember, check with Snopes, search on "Penny Brown".

A classic inboxer

nospam@example.com (JaBbA) — Tue, 21 Sep 2004 13:51:31 -0400

Just got sent this email from a friend:

Sorry guys, it's quick and for a kid's school project! This is for a science fair project. If you could do this I would appreciate it! DON'T ASK, JUST PLAY!

Copy and paste this letter into a new e-mail (PLEASE do NOT hit "Forward"), then read the list of names. If
your name is on the list, put a star * next to it. If not, then add your name (in alphabetical order, put no star). Send it to ten people and send it back to the person who sent it to you. Put your name in the subject box!

You'll see what happens - it's kind of cool! Please keep this going. Don't mess it up - please!!

Abbey*, Aaron**, Aimee, Aine, Alison**, Amanda, Amber,
Amy**, Angie, Anita, Ann*, Anne, Annie...

It goes on from there. Of course, it's a hoax. If you really did it, the person 4 before you would get 10,000 responses. That would be a full time job!

Remember: Check with snopes. Searching www.snopes.com with the terms "science fair name" came up with the hit The Name Game.

Tipoffs:

- Forward it to 10 of your friends. Never a good idea.
- Breathless "DON'T ASK, JUST PLAY!". Why don't they want you to ask?
- No mention of the child whose project this is. No school, no teacher.

Maybe if it was somebody FAMOUS, I might do it for 25%

nospam@example.com (JaBbA) — Mon, 20 Sep 2004 15:08:53 -0400

It's been a while since a 419 scam got through to me. Actually, this one came to my work address. Interesting, since up until now my work address has been fairly clean of SPAM.

The difference with this one? Nobody famous, and it's entreating me to get past the "barbaric" laws of her home country of NIGERIA. Of course, she just wants to come to America and start a new life.

I got my first 419 scam via my home fax machine in 1994. They haven't changed much.

I think I'll tell her I want 40%. This is America, after all.

Dear Alcorn,

With due respect, I am Mrs Helen Obi, Having gone through your profile, Iam convinced and pleased to contact you for some assistance and business relationship.I am a widow, who live in NIGERIA. I have a daughter who is the joy of my life. My late husband was a loving, caring and hardworking businessman who died unfortunately in an auto crash. Before the sudden death of my beloved husband and father of my daughter, my late husband intended to establish a business in the united states of America with the sum of $5million united states dollars,but unfortunately he died before this proposed venture. Following his death, his family members are telling me that I am not entitled to his property (Assets and fund) because i am a woman and my offspring is a female as well according to some barbaric traditional laws here in Nigeria (Africa) which doesn't permit a woman to inherit a man's property, but I and my child will be cartered for by my late husband family will take over the management of his business and other properties. Unfortunately to this wicked family members, the $5 million united states dollars which my late husband intended to use in establishing a business in the United States. This fund was deposited in a bank account unknown to his family .It is I and the Manager of the bank that are aware of this fund, so I have discussed this matter with the Manager that I want this fund personally and he agreed based on some compensation.

According to the Manager, the best way to secure this fund is to transfer it to a foreign account outside Nigeria for safe-keeping, later it will be used for business establishment with your advice and assistance, which I will also come over to your country. At this juncture, I and the Manager need your sincere assistance in providing us with your bank account, so that this fund can be transferred into it as soon as possible as I hear your positive response,However, I and the Manager have agreed to give you 25% of the fund as a reward for your sincere assistance and the remaining 75% of the fund will be for us(I and the Manager).

Thanks you and God Bless,
Mrs.Helen Obi

Is Allstate sending out a warning?

nospam@example.com (JaBbA) — Mon, 28 Jun 2004 14:41:14 -0400

A hoax from way back in 2000 is floating around again....with an addition.

The "Spunkball" hoax has added a header saying "Important Message from Allstate Insurance Company â For Your Information." And people are falling for it.

Don't ever forward an email like this. It wastes bandwidth.

Aliso Viejo Tries to Ban DiHydrogen Monoxide

nospam@example.com (JaBbA) — Tue, 16 Mar 2004 11:47:30 -0500

Based upon the research done by a paralegal, the city of Aliso Viejo, CA almost banned the use of stryofoam cups because of the use of DiHydrogen Monoxide in their manufacture.

Of course, DiHydrogen Monoxide is H2O.

The website containing the dire warnings has existed for years. If you haven't seen it, JaBbA says check it out.

I'm proud of her

nospam@example.com (JaBbA) — Wed, 03 Dec 2003 13:56:13 -0500

My wife now officially joins the ranks of the 'much more clueful than average' Internet users.

She was sent the "Social Security 2004/Golden Fleece Retirement Plan" email hoax, and rather than sending it to everyone she knows (as requested in the email) she sent it to me to ask if it was real

Good for her! It's a hoax - most of the info in the email is completely false.

Snopes' entry on the Golden Fleece

See the extended entry for the hoax email.

Continue reading "I'm proud of her"

A new 419 Scam variation

nospam@example.com (JaBbA) — Mon, 24 Nov 2003 13:25:19 -0500

A new version of the 419 scam just came across my desk. Apparently, lung cancer now 'defiles' medical treatment. Amazing that these things continue, because people still respond to them.

Remember, if it's too good to be true, it is. Or isn't. Whichever.

<SCAM>

Continue reading "A new 419 Scam variation"