Dear God what is wrong with you people!!!? Stop forwarding these bogus “the sky is falling” virus warning emails.

Seriously, you’re not helping things by sending obviously bogus messages to me or anyone else. Spammers and pranksters want you to clog up the world’s email boxes, and you’re playing the perfect fool by complying.

Hey, when you see a car coming down the street, I want you to run into the road so that you get hit and killed. What do you mean, “no”? I said to do it, so do it. These idiot emails say to forward them, and you forward them, right?

Mindlessly, carelessly, thoughtlessly.

You don’t care that you’re contributing to Internet pollution and slowing down Internet traffic. You don’t bother checking out the facts. You get an email that claims “Bill Gates says” or “The Wall Street Journal says” or “IBM says” that this virus threat is real and for you to forward it. That’s good enough for you, right?

Well Bill Gates says to run into the road and get killed by that car. Of course you won’t!

You say that you’re only trying to protect your friends by warning them. Well, knucklehead, you may very well be forwarding a trojan or virus to your friends instead. Spreading indiscriminate email from strangers makes you an Internet Typhoid Mary.

If you want to check the facts, it’s incredibly easy. Go to Snopes.com, rightfully self-billed as “The definitive Internet reference source for urban legends, folklore, myths, rumors, and misinformation.” You can also go to the excellent virus hoax page at McAfee.

Just remember one simple rule: When in doubt, throw it out. Certainly don’t forward it to me!

Scrud Kelley

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