MoMusings

I wrote a paper a few years ago on this subject, the paper entitled ‘Hoaxes and Other Electronic Ephemera’. This covered the impact of Hoaxes, Scams, Chain E-Mail, Urban Legends, etc. on companies and suggested ways to help control or eliminate the effects they have on network/e-mail resources and staff productivity. The paper was written for and presented at the Virus Bulletin 2001 International Conference held in Prague, Czech Republic.

I updated the paper for another conference in 2004, this being the first Open University - Combating Vandalism in Cyberspace conference. The paper was entitled: ‘Mind Wars: Attack of the Memes[1]’.

Both papers can be found here: http://arachnid.homeip.net/papers

If you are interested in memetics[2] then I have included a couple of pictures of books that would be good introductions to the subject, without being too involved, technical or boring.

Why am I informing you of this, now?

Well, two reasons:

1. I haven’t covered this area in this blog yet, apart from hoaxes.
2. A number of new hoaxes and chain e-mails have surfaced over the last month or so.

The first one below is the latest ‘Virus Hoax’ and is rather topical as it is using the Olympics.

Please read the attached warning issued today.

PLEASE FORWARD THIS WARNING AMONG FRIENDS, FAMILY AND CONTACTS:

You should be alert during the next days: Do not open any message with an attached filed called “Invitation” regardless of who sent it.

It is a virus that opens an Olympic Torch which “burns” the whole hard disc C of your computer.
This virus will be received from someone who has your e-mail address in his/her contact list, that is why you should send this e-mail to all your contacts.
It is better to receive this message 25 times than to receive the virus and open it.

If you receive a mail called “invitation”, though sent by a friend, do not open it and shut down your computer immediately.

This is the worst virus announced by CNN, it has been classified by Microsoft as the most destructive virus ever.

This virus was discovered by McAfee yesterday, and there is no repair yet for this kind of virus.

This virus simply destroys the Zero Sector of the Hard Disc, where the vital information is kept.

SEND THIS E-MAIL TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW, COPY THIS E-MAIL AND SEND IT TO YOUR FRIENDS AND REMEMBER: IF YOU SEND IT TO THEM, YOU WILL BENEFIT ALL OF US.

The next one is a typical chain e-mail which has been circulating for many years in one form or another:

THIS TOOK TWO PAGES OF THE TUESDAY USA TODAY - IT IS FOR REAL

Subject: PLEEEEEEASE READ!!!! it was on the news!

!!!! It was on the news! Kathy South Alcoa - EHS Maintenance Coordinator Phone: 765/771 - 3547 Pager : 765/420 - 6575

To all of my friends, I do not usually forward messages, But this is from my good friend Pearlas Sandborn and she really is an attorney.

If she says that this will work - It will work. After all, What have you got to lose?
SORRY EVERYBODY.. JUST HAD TO TAKE THE CHANCE!!! I’m an attorney, And I know the law.
This thing is for real. Rest assured AOL and Intel will follow through with their promises for fear of facing a multimillion-dollar class action suit similar to the one filed by PepsiCo against General Electric not too long ago.

Dear Friends; Please do not take this for a junk letter. Bill Gates sharing his fortune. If you ignore this, You will repent later. Microsoft and AOL are now the largest Internet companies and in an effort to make sure that Internet Explorer remains the most widely used program, Microsoft and AOL are running an e-mail beta test.

When you forward this e-mail to friends, Microsoft can and will track it ( If you are a Microsoft Windows user) For a two weeks time period.

For every person that you forward this e-mail to, Microsoft will pay you $245.00 For every person that you sent it to that forwards it on, Microsoft will pay you $243.00 and for every third person that receives it, You will be paid $241.00. Within two weeks, Microsoft will contact you for your address and then send you a check.

Regards. Charles S Bailey General Manager Field Operations
1-800-842-2332 Ext. 1085 or 904-1085 or RNX
292-1085 Charles_Bailey@csx.com Charles_bailey@csx.com

I thought this was a scam myself, But two weeks after receiving this e-mail and forwarding it on.
Microsoft contacted me for my address and withindays, I receive a check for $24,800.00.
You need to respond before the beta testing is over. If anyone can affoard this, Bill gates is the man.

It’s all marketing expense to him. Please forward this to as many people as possible.
You are bound to get at least $10,000.00. We’re not going to help them out with their e-mail beta test without getting a little something for our time. My brother’s girlfriend got in on this a few months ago. When i went to visit him for the Baylor/UT game. She showed me her check. It was for the sum of $4,324.44 and was stamped “Paid in full”

Like i said before, I know the law, and this is for real.

Just to make sure you all get the point of this posting, I suggest you watch this: http://www.softlab.ece.ntua.gr/~sivann/pub/swf/may02-smilepop-soapbox4.swf

Don’t worry, it is fun and educational too.

But ‘pleeeeease‘ do NOT follow the advice at the end, just in case any of you were tempted to

[1] Memes (pronounced ‘Meems’ for plural, ‘Meem’ for singular) are contagious ideas, all competing for a share of our mind in a kind of Darwinian selection. As memes evolve, they become better and better at distracting and diverting us from whatever we’d really like to be doing with our lives. They are a kind of Drug or Virus of the Mind.
[2] Memetics is the study of Memes.