As an IT professional, one of my biggest pet peeves are forwards warning me of dire events or telling me if I don't send this to 50 people, something bad will happen to me. This little irritation began many years ago when I was working at Microsoft. I supported MSMail and Exchange. For those of you who don't know what these are, they are email programs, but on the server side. They are what processes the email, send/receive it, and put it in the correct mailbox. That's not the exact technical description, but a general description so you know what I'm talking about. I was at work one day and got an email from a family member saying if I forwarded it on, Bill Gates was going to give everyone that forwarded it a very large sum of money. The email went on the say Microsoft was testing an email tracking software. I showed it to a co-worker and was like "We are??" That began my distaste for this kind of email.
That particular email has changed over the years and shows up every few months. I've seen the same email with Pepsi, AT&T, Coca-Cola, and recently Google, but the general idea was someone was going to pay the forwarder a large sum of money just for forwarding the message on.
There are a few things I want people to think about before forwarding messages or re-posting things on their Facebook page. First, if it sounds to good to be true...it probably is. Take 2 minutes and do a few internet searches. I bet you can find your own answers.
Second, does it sound fishy? Is someone asking you for your bank account number or personal information so they can send you a large sum of money? Is the email coming from outside the US? Again, it's probably a scam or hoax.
Third, check http://snopes.com/. I bet you'll probably find your email or re-post listed on this page somewhere. Snopes will tell you if it's true, partially true, or false. It will also give you some history on where it started.
Finally, if you've done your research and found what your sending or posting to be factual, please remove all the forwarded email addresses before sending it along. Just send the body of the original message. I usually even go so far as to send it to people using BCC so I don't inadvertently give out someones email address.
A little common sense goes a long way. As the subject says, think before your forward. If you're sending from a work email address, you'll make your IT people happy. If you're sending it to a group of friends, the 5th or 6th person to forward the same email won't be broadcasting your (or my) email address to strangers. If you want more information, please feel free to message me. I'd prefer to have a ton of messages with sincere questions than to get a mailbox full of unnecessary forwards.
