Do you tell someone if they have sent you an untrue email story?
Asked by
ubersiren (
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December 18th, 2009
Seems recently, I’ve had to use snopes.com to verify or debunk many email stories that I get from people. Here is one of the most recent examples. Some of them are suspicious right off the bat.
Do you do your research when you read these emails? Do you tell the person who sent it to you when they are false?
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Only if I can prove that their story is not real. By going to snopes.com for example. But yes I sure do and I like others to do it for me as well!
Snopes.com is my best friend. I usualy send the snopes link in a reply to their e-mail. If I’m in a mood, then I’ll hit ‘reply all’ and send the link.
Yes, I correct them with facts and then admonish to check it before they send to me.
I use snopes too. And if it false, as all have been so far, I send the link back to the sender in the hopes that they will learn to check a story before inflicting it on others.
You people ever heard of “fiction novels”?? Me…I like to hear lies that are crytalline pure fabrications. No half-truths for me…nuh-uh. Give me the 100% USDA stamped bullcrap!!
I do. I think it helps to convince people that not everything you read is true.
I do not tell anyone that I believe that there story is false….. because sometimes it may be subjective and they just might be correct or perhaps “Snopes.com is wrong ; ya’ just never know anymore….
I do send the link. What bugs me more than anything though, are the emails that cannot be verified: “Send this to 11 thousand people in the next 30 seconds, or you will most certainly be afflicted with herpes of the inner ear!” Or, “Jesus loved you enough to die for your sins, and you are too lazy/evil to email this to everyone on your contacts list? Well, Jesus might just be too lazy to let you into heaven, then. So there! Take that, sinner!”
I immediately ignore those emails, while I die a little inside. Of disappointment.
Yes, I send the link to snopes’s to them and tell them not to worry. Because it’s usually about a missing child or conspiracy theory.
Most of them are fake. I do not bother with the ones which are valid (usually some conspiracy theory which is far-fetched but feasible) or the ones which are too obvious (ie the Bank of Chad wanting to give me $1,000,000 to transfer illegal funds…they’ve been trying to get rid of that money since 1995). But I did recently write an answer to everyone who had sent a chain-mail about a missing girl. Since an identical email was sent about my daughter last year, I had personal interest in the story. People generally press “forward” without thinking of the child itself or the consequences. The little girl that was supposedly missing in the last chain-mail was not missing at all, and these people trying to help her actually harmed her.
Yes, I’ve had to do that several times for my distant relative; she’s 75 and believe things her friends send her. Once she even told me that she checked on Snopes for a story about some kid who needed cards or something, and it was for real! I checked myself and it wasn’t. I sent her the link to the page debunking it and she hasn’t passed on anything such tales to me since.
The worst was the photoshopped breast/pods picture. Though you could tell after a bit that it was fake, that first glance was like, AAIIIEEE!!SHE’SGOTWORMSINHERBOOB!
I have to jump on the Snopes.com band wagon.
Not that it’s ever stopped any of my associates from passing along unverified information, but at least I did my part in trying to get them to resist the temptation of spamming their friends.
I do, but only after I have checked it out first to see if maybe it might be a myth. I will usually supply them with a link to prove my case.
Nah.
In fact, I very rarely even open emails whose subjects begin with “Fwd:”
I really don’t care what popped up on your screen after you passed the email on to 134 people, or which Nigerian prince wants to bequeath his fortune upon you. If I feel like wasting time, I’ll Fluther. ^_^
Yup, I put the snopes.com address that matches in with the story. I hate it when it’s false, except for the example that you used. The one about the dog named Tank, I cried on that and thought how sweet but had my suspecions during the story.
lol @Poser I get the Christian emails all the time. I am a Christian but I don’t think God is gonna codemn me to hell for not sending a fwd I’ve seen 5 million times
No. I would think they should already know that since they wrote it to start off with.
I do. If something forwarded to me seems a little fishy, I check Snopes and then reply to the person (privately) saying it’s a hoax, with a link. I always do it kindly, not angrily or mockingly, because I know they will be embarrassed. Usually the person comes right back with an apology and a correction to the entire original list.
I had to learn my lesson on this by having others (usually my husband) do the same with me. After feeling foolish enough times, I got the message: before forwarding, verify.
Most definetly Snopes. Some people are just gullible, & I don’t mean that unkindly! Our elders, or people who are just trusting by nature for example. Then there are some I guess who just can’t help themselves & send those irritating chain letters anyway. I am living proof that nothing happens if you don’t forward !!!!!!!!
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