For the love of god
Some kind spammer has decided to wind up middle class sussex with a chain email.
It promises a £60 voucher (yes, that is pounds, not euros) to anyone who sends the email to ten other people, copying the email to j.sainsbury @customerservices.com.
The first time I received it I ignored it.
The second time I replied to my mother explaining that it was spam.
The fifth time I replied to my brother (who works in IT and should know better) explaining again that it was spam, and that he should know better.
Today I received it twenty times. Yes, you read that right. Twenty.
These emails are coming from my mother’s friends. People I need to be nice to. People who may read this, who knows? People who use email to forward each other amusing things.
I’d had enough. Politely, but firmly (in hindsight perhaps a little too firmly, but these people need to learn), I explained that this was junk mail, that Sainsburys are unlikely to give away free money in this manner, and that the email address that it was supposed to be copied to does not in any way relate to Sainsburys, ending as it does in customerservices.com
I also pointed out that as I do not live in a country that has Sainsburys, the whole thing was wasted on my anyway.
I didn’t get into the fact that I’m not particularly happy about my email address being forwarded around and copied to junk mail websites, as in fairness, that’s pretty much all my hotmail address is good for anyway. Now, I’m regretting that, I think it could have been a valuable opportunity to educate them in privacy and internet good manners.
*sigh*
Update (23rd Dec 2006): This seems to be a really popular post on the blog all of a sudden. My guess is that the email is still doing the rounds. It’s spam people, spam. Delete it, do not pass it on.
Anyway, now you’re here feel free to take a look around the rest of the blog. It’s mainly about delicious things that I’ve eaten, books that I’ve read, and things that I’ve knitted. Not so much about explaining junk mail to the good people of Sussex.
Damn right! Why do people’s senses leave them when they read things on a computer screen. If some fool turned up at your door with a story like that you would boot them into the street. Send them to Snopes.
Hell tell them the emails count as illegal harassment through the internets and you have reported them to the government. Tell them these emails are used to fund terrorism and internet piracy. Tell them the Sainsbury’s goons are on there way right now with rubber truncheons and Jamie Oliver facemasks to pound their kidneys into pate.
People need to learn to fear the mass abuse of email. FEAR IT!
11 Nov 2005 at 3:17 pm
I used to get this kind of crap off my sister all the time until I told her in no uncertain terms that if she sent me such garbage again I would be forced to rip out her guts through her anus and feed them to her.
It seemed to work.
11 Nov 2005 at 5:10 pm
That’s a good plan.
I’ve just received it two more times. From one of the people I’d sent my reply to. This is even a person who has seen me lose my temper before (a rare but scary occurrence), and had it directed at her. Totally oblivious, clearly. I may just identify it as spam next time, and block them all. In fact, that’s a plan.
Just in case you’re reading this, mother and brother dearest, pay attention to what my friends are suggesting I do to you.
11 Nov 2005 at 6:17 pm
I deleted mine as soon as I saw it! Thanks for the education daughter - but thanks to my son, all my it literate friends are now no longer!
11 Nov 2005 at 7:02 pm