Hoax emails:

• Waste the time of the people that read and forward them
• They cause well meaning citizens to notify the authorities and waste public funds and resources only to find out there is no “missing person” or other crime
• Shifts public opinion negatively. Pepsi doesn’t hate God, Starbucks DOES support our troops, and Obama isn’t a Muslim (as far as you know, and he’s in the whitehouse now so quit spreading the hate. (I voted for the other guy).

Here’s what I do to verify an email. I copy the subject line of the email (if it isn’t descriptive enough I will note a couple of key words in the message) then I go to google and paste it in with the word “snopes” (without the quotes). Within the first couple of links you’ll find a link that either tells you the story is a hoax or is true.

Snopes.com is THE last word in internet hoaxes, scams, and urban legends. They heave been collecting them since 1995.

On any given day I probably delete at least a couple of emails with subject lines that begin with “Fw:” Its not that I’m not interested in what my friends and family get passionate about, its just that I’ve been around these Internet pipes for quite a while now. Nowhere more than the web is the saying, “If its too good to be true, then it probably is” more true. Most of these emails are impossible at there primise. There is no way for Applebys to track how many people you sent a message to so that they can send you a $50 coupon. There is no way that the disposed ruler of a small African nation has access to your email address.

Read every email as if the sender approached you in a parking lot. How easily would you fall for what they were selling then?

Please people be careful out there.