Suckers

Similar in tone to my previous PSA post, the following are email forwards that NO self-respecting adult should fall for or forward ever again.

Bonsai Kittens- this email forward is just mind-boggling. Why anyone ever believes it stumps me to this day. The idea that someone would mass-market a way to bottle up and mold kittens into various vessel shapes is just too much. Maybe it's the tug on the emotional heart-strings of people who love cute kittens. This site was launched in 2000 (and occasionally I will still get a petition protesting this barbaric business.) Do a search for Bonsai Kittens and at least you will get Wikipedia and Snopes clearly refuting its validity

Gas Strikes- this isn't going to work. Really. Not driving AT ALL might dent the pockets of Daddy Petroleum, however, if you and your 200 myspace buddies don't buy gas on Tuesday, your efforts won't matter when y'all fill up on Monday (to avoid running out on Tuesday) or later that same week.

Microsoft/AOLBeta- nobody is going to give you any money for forwarding an email to all your friends and associates. Think about it. How exactly is this check for a thousand some-odd dollars and a random-sounding number of cents going to show up in your snail mail box? How would these corporations track your email trail and how would they get your full name and mailing address?

And another thing, Free Money- people are not going to give you free money. If you fall for schemes that involve getting cash for nothing, you are about to get hosed. The world goes 'round on greenbacks, what makes you think someone you don't know to whom you provide no service will just hand you over a large chunk? In case you haven't heard this one before, if someone offers to send you a money order for an amount larger than the room you have for rent, game system you are selling or desk set you're getting rid of; and they want you to cash it for them and send them back the difference...you're about to lose out on the whole amount because that money order is a fake. (And don't do Internet business with Nigeria, just don't.)

Just because an email forward looks legit because it contains credentials like, TV news programs, famous people's names, or a signature with a phone number in it, doesn't mean a lick. Try opening a new window in your browser and Googling that phone number, or better yet, bookmark the website Snopes.com. They seem to know everything by the time it hits your inbox, especially since most of this crap has been floating since before you signed up for your current email address. It's also quite an entertaining website for those slow days at the office.

Please. Exercise discretion and don't look like an asshole to your co-workers. Do two minutes of research before you go freaking other people out with your dissemination of misinformation.