Warning - Those Disgusting Internet INFORMATION SCAMS Are Back
So, I’m sitting in he barbershop when the barber, Joe Donahue, tells me that a customer of his has decided to stop buying Starbucks coffee because he “heard” that there was an internet report that Starbucks refused to send packages of coffee to soldiers in Iraq because the company is anti-war. NOT TRUE -NEVER HAPPENED.
What a bunch of information garbage. I don’t blame the customer, but I DO blame people who read very bad rumor and innuendo on the web and decide that it has to be true. The phony report on Starbucks goes back to 2004. Old story - new spin. Also being featured on the web - those phony reports on Barack Obama’, John Edwards, Mike Huckabee and of course the Hate Hillary sites, and the attacks on Mitt Romney’s Mormonism, and so many more.
These reports are laughable and at the same time scary, because people spread them like wildfire.
The web is a great resource, but edit your information carefully. Many sites and messages are filled with hatred and distortions that are fueled by political manipulators .
One thoughtful writer, to this space, suggests that Bush and Cheney have a plan to cancel the elections and continue their grip on power . Rudy Guiliani wanted to do that after 9/11, to stay on as Mayor, but New Yorkers said enough is enough, even in times of peril.
America is a unique place. We have almost total freedom of speech, which means that some people will use that freedom to spread anything and anywhere until it becomes such a common thread that people actually believe it is true.
Rumors and fabrications are easy to accept if you want to believe them. Otherwise, check things out.
Don’t believe everything you read, unless, of course, it is printed here!
Good advice. I suggest some rules of thumb for Internet usage:
1. If you receive some “profound” e-mail, chances are 20 million or so other people also received the same e-mail. There’s no need to forward it to everyone in your address book. Don’t think you are so special that you get to receive secret information…
2. If you can’t resist the urge to forward an e-mail, please check snopes.com first. Search on the subject line or something in the content. Snopes.com will tell you if it is already proven to be a hoax. It will save you a lot of embarassment.
3. Cell phones do not need to be on the Do Not Call List, Applebee’s won’t send you $50 for forwarding an e-mail, no one paid $800 for a cookie recipe that you got for free by e-mail, you haven’t want the lottery of some other country, a guy from Nigeria does not need to use your bank account to hide money, Bush is not going to cancel the elections, and boycotting Exxon for one day is not going to make any difference.
Larry;
You are so right. I spend a lot of time on the internet marketing my business and I learned years ago about all three points that Joe so masterfully made.
It really makes you wonder what you can believe these days. I find myself using snopes.com to check out the validity of a rumor 2-3 times a week. Enough already.
I do however believe that some emails offers that seem “too good to be true” sometimes are indeed very real. Of course those offers only come from people I know.
Vic P
Larry, an elderly woman in NJ recenlty committed suicide over the fact that she was lured into a Jamaica based lottery scam…they told her she won millions and needed $18,000 sent in order to start the paperwork…this went on until she lost nearly $250,000. And just to show you how brazen these guys are, the local police detective , in Monroe, NJ, actually talked on the phone with the scammer when they called the woman. The police were laughed at an told they coouldn’t do anything about the scam! The old lady left a pile of scam lottery paperwork on her dining room table, then went out onto a jetty and jumped in, drowning herself.
Bottom Line: BEWARE of scams, no matter how luring…hit the DELETE button!
I don’t know Jersey Joe? That story sounds like urban legend to me. Here is the only way to truly beat every scam before it beats you. Just send $19.95 and self addressed stamped envelope, and I will let you in on the secret.
You mean Mitt Romney isn’t a Mormon?
hello Larry,it seems a lot of your readers subscribe to the Hillary haters website.
The best way to do is to delete all emails offering something for free. Nobody ever offers you something for free without getting something in return.
Rumors spread on the internet is an old trick. Celebrities know what to do, they simply ignore the rumors and avoid feeding them by having their attorney fue the rumermonger.
I keep my dealings with domestic people and ignore the foreign offerings. You can easily be scammed here in the good old USA by your fellow Americans! Never trust anything anyone says to you and if they send you written correspondence to sign, never sign it unless your attorney has reviewed it. The few dollars spent on an attorney review can save you a lifetime of grief.
You forgot to mention the one circulating about John McCain, that he left Viet Nam before fellow prisoners could and that he and Kerry conspired to prevent any rescue efforts for POWs still allegedly held alive 40 years later.
[...] January 21, 2008 · No Comments Veteran newsman Larry Kane apparently has his own website where he gives opinions on various happenings, sort of like every other blog out there in the world wide interwebs. He recently found out, by putting his feet to the pavement and digging up the truth, that the information superhighway may include some unscrupulous people spreading untruths: [...]
These is threats that comes through teh intertubes. Its not a truck. you don’t dump stuff on it.
Hey Fast Eddie…are you the Really Fast Eddie?
Hre ya go:
http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/200801210410/NEWS03/801210328