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Bugs, viruses and trojans: they are part of the ugly reality of today’s high-tech world. Emailed chain letters are a common source of trouble. They used to travel by mail but now infiltrate cyberspace. They are often accompanied by a plea for money or some other form of assistance. But be aware, you may be receiving more than a message from the original sender.
Peter Giannoulis of Access 2 Networks believes caution should be excercised when dealing with forwarded messages, even if they originate from a trusted source: “It’s a little harsh to say don’t trust your friends, just don’t trust your friends’ judgments.”
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A growing number of the pitches originate with scammers and email spammers who have found a new gateway to your “inbox”. Giannoulis, an expert in cyber security, says an email filter will not detect an unoriginal message which appears to be sent from a legitimate address.
Chain letters frequently ask you to redistribute the message to as many others as possible, cautioning you NOT to break the chain.
The pressure to forward many of these emails is also quite pronounced, says University of Toronto student Michael Vargas.
“They kind of like prey on your superstitions, it’s pretty silly, you open them and find, oh, something’s going to happen the next day. Then it just doesn’t seem that logical for that to happen,” he says.
Orlando Ventura, also a U of T student, says while he finds them “annoying,” he sends them because he’s “a bit superstitous.”
Often, the substance of the message is a somewhat believeable fraud.
For instance, a poem purported to be written by a young girl with cancer read:
“Dear All – Pass this email on to everyone you know – even those you don’t know.”
It goes on to say: “By sending this to as many people as possible, you can give her and her family a little hope, because every name that this is sent to, The American Cancer Society will donate 3 cents to per name to her treatment and recover plan.”
Recipients should be acutely critical of these sort of emailed chain letters, says Giannoulis:
“If it’s for a charity, like the Red Cross, that is always or typically a scam”.
Sending chain emails can be risky for another reason. They are often accompanied with harmful viruses that are expensive to remove. An infected business email account, for instance, may have a ripple effect on other employees.
“If a person, corporately especially, launches a worm, and takes down a corporate network, it affects the financial bottom line of a company if you have to shut down your email for five days,” says Giannoulis.
A scenario that’s playing out – more and more – sometimes, with the the help of unsuspecting family and friends.
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