I receive all kinds of email.  Many times, I receive heartwrenching pleas for help forwarded to me by friends.  They've received these emails and with the greatest intentions in the world, they forward them on to others.

However, many of these emails are hoaxes, email sent just to get their messages sent around the world.

For me, they are an irritant that takes away from my work day and confuses things when VALID emails do come through. 

Here are some links to answer some questions you may have as to
why people do this,
the cost of doing this and
what you can do to break the chain of this junk that clutters the Internet.

When I receive an email that I suspect is a hoax, I:
- go to http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/
- click on Search
- enter some key words from the email.
- I then review the results.

If I find that the email was a hoax, I:
- reply to the sender
- put the above info in the email
- put in the link to the found hoax
- ask the person to send this to the person who sent this to them.

If you are interested in supporting my efforts to keep hoax emails off the Internet, feel free to do what I do.

Be well,

Steve