Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Advice from Snopes
Advice from snopes.Com <http://snopes.com/>
VERY IMPORTANT!!
1) Any time you see an email that says "forward this on to '10' (or however
many) of your friends", "sign this petition", or "you'll get bad luck" or
"you'll get good luck" or "you'll see something funny on your screen after
you send it" or whatever --- it almost always has an email tracker program
attached that tracks the cookies and emails of those folks you forward to.
The host sender is getting a copy each time it gets forwarded and then is
able to get lists of 'active' email addresses to use in SPAM emails or sell
to other Spammers.
Even when you get emails that demand you send the email on if you're not
ashamed of God/Jesus ---
that is email tracking, and they are playing on our conscience. These
people don't care how they get your email addresses - just as long as they
get them.
Also, emails that talk about a missing child or a child with an incurable
disease "how would you feel if that was your child" --- email
tracking.Ignore them and don't participate!
2) Almost all emails that ask you to add your name and forward on to others
are similar to that mass letter years ago that asked people to send business
cards to the little kid in Florida who wanted to break the Guinness Book of
Records for the most cards. All it was, and all any of this type of email
is, is a way to get names and 'cookie' tracking information for
telemarketers and Spammers -- to validate active email accounts for their
ownprofitablepurposes.
You can do your Friends and Family members a GREAT favor by sending this
information to them. You will be providing a service to your friends. And
you will be rewarded by not getting thousands of spam emails in the future!
Do yourself a favor and STOP adding your name(S) to those types of listing
regardless how inviting they might sound! Or make you feel guilty if you
don't!
It's all about getting email addresses and nothing more.
You may think you are supporting a GREAT cause, but you are NOT!
Instead, you will be getting tons of junk mail later and very possibly a
virus attached! Plus, we are helping the Spammers get rich! Let's not make
it easy for them!
ALSO: Email petitions are NOT acceptable to Congress or any other
organization - i.e. Social security, etc. To be acceptable, petitions must
have a "signed signature" and full address of the person signing the
petition, so this is a waste of time and you are just helping the email
trackers.
Tips for Handling Telemarketers
Three Little Words That Work!!
(1)The three little words are: 'Hold On, Please...'
Saying this, while putting down your phone and walking off (instead of
hanging-up immediately) would make each telemarketing call so much more
time-consuming that boiler room sales would grind to a halt.
Then when you eventually hear the phone company's 'beep-beep-beep' tone, you
know it's time to go back and hang up your handset, which has efficiently
completed its task.
These three little words will help eliminate telephone soliciting..
(2) Do you ever get those annoying phone calls with no one on the other end?
This is a telemarketing technique where a machine makes phone calls and
records the time of day when a person answers the phone.
This technique is used to determine the best time of day for a 'real' sales
person to call back and get someone at home.
What you can do after answering, if you notice there is no one there, is to
immediately start hitting your # button on the phone, 6 or 7 times as
quickly as possible. This confuses the machine that dialed the call, and it
kicks your number out of their system.. Gosh, what a shame not to have your
name in their system any longer!!!
(3) Junk Mail Help:
When you get 'ads' enclosed with your phone or utility bill, return these
'ads' with your payment. Let the sending companies throw their own junk mail
away.
When you get those 'pre-approved' letters in the mail for everything from
credit cards to 2nd mortgages and similar type junk, do not throw away the
return envelope.
Most of these come with postage-paid return envelopes, right? It costs them
more than the regular 45 cents postage, 'IF' and when they receive them
back.
It costs them nothing if you throw them away! The postage was around 50
cents before the last increase and it is according to the weight. In that
case, why not get rid of some of your other junk mail and put it in these
cool little, postage-paid return envelopes.
One of Andy Rooney 's (60 minutes) ideas.
Send an ad for your local chimney cleaner to American Express. Send a pizza
coupon to Citibank. If you didn't get anything else that day, then just send
them their blank application back!
If you want to remain anonymous, just make sure your name isn't on anything
you send them.
You can even send the envelope back empty if you want to just to keep them
guessing! It still costs them 45 cents.
The banks and credit card companies are currently getting a lot of their own
junk back in the mail, but folks, we need to OVERWHELM them. Let's let them
know what it's like to get lots of junk mail, and best of all they're paying
for it...Twice!
Let's help keep our postal service busy since they are saying that e-mail is
cutting into their business profits, and that's why they need to increase
postage costs again. You get the idea!
If enough people follow these tips, it will work. I have been doing this for
years, and I get very little junk mail anymore.
THIS JUST MIGHT BE ONE E-MAIL THAT YOU WILL WANT TO FORWARD TO YOUR FRIENDS
6 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
but still great advice. 
