General Interest

Chain email, hoaxes, and scams--Oh my!

Karen Eft

It's not really "lions and tigers and bears" that we have to worry about these days, but rather more modern creatures dwelling in the Internet. Although the loathsome "spam" monster can be extremely annoying (see The worsening problem of spam, BC&C, Summer 1998), there are some even more nefarious animals that threaten the innocent online traveler.

Chain email

Users should beware of any compelling email which asks them either to forward the message to as many friends as possible or to send money to several designated recipients. It's a fact of life that many people are innocent enough to accept these messages at face value. Please don't be fooled! There actually was no ailing child who wanted to "receive as many email messages as possible from all over the world." That was just one typical example of the modern email version of an "urban legend." The actual purpose for the originator of chain email is to see how widely the message or scheme can be disseminated. Thus, a lot of psychology and creative thought go into composing a message to make it as compelling as possible.

One way to convince people to participate in chain email is persuading them they can make money. For example, recent chain email promised respondents $1,000 if they emailed Bill Gates (who posted a "debunking" message in response, at http://www.microsoft.com/billgates/columns/1998Essay/3-25col.htm). Another way to compel people to perpetuate the chain is to threaten the reader with very dire consequences, based on superstition, for not participating. In these messages, readers are confronted with the possibility of bad luck, illness, or even death if they dare to "just say no" and delete the message. For a list of some typical Internet chain letters plus guidelines to identify typical chain email characteristics, see CIAC's Internet Chain Letters website.

Using campus email services to send chain email violates UCLink Policy and the University of California Electronic Mail Policy Interference provision. Also, the United States Postal Inspection Service website warns that participating in such schemes can be illegal if they request money or other items of value, promise a substantial return to the participants, and then use the U.S. mail at any step along the way (such as mailing money to someone).

Hoaxes

Email hoaxes are a subspecies of chain letters, in that their purpose is also to achieve the widest possible dissemination. These could be referred to as "Internet horror stories," because they prey on users' worst fears, purporting to warn readers about alleged dangers. Perhaps the most common variety of online hoax involves fake warnings about computer viruses, but there are also the blood-and-guts variety which "warn" their readers about physical danger. A classic example of that genre is the story about travelers being drugged and having their kidneys stolen. Talk about compelling! Other well-known hoaxes include "Good Times Virus," "NaughtyRobot," "WIN A HOLIDAY," and "E-mail or get a Virus."

Hoaxes not only clog up the Internet, they also waste the time of computing support personnel, who must research and respond to nonexistent problems and provide users with facts and reassurance. Wise Internet users can investigate a particular message or educate themselves about this topic by means of various websites. For an extensive list of such websites see our Online Hoaxes site (http://socrates.berkeley.edu:7015/hoaxes.html).

Scams

If you receive email or see a website describing a commercial opportunity which you believe involves fraud or other violations of consumer or economic law, you can contact the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to request that they take action. The FTC will take action when it has reason to believe that the law has been or is being violated, and it appears to the Commission that a proceeding is in the public interest.

The FTC recently broke new online regulatory ground by permanently barring a Florida entrepreneur from conducting further business, including any advertising or marketing, over the Internet. The action was taken following reports that the person sold new and used computers via online auction houses but then did not deliver the merchandise or issue refunds.

Even if the FTC does not act immediately based on your particular report, they do want to be informed of such matters, since they may eventually take action based on cumulative information received over a period of time. The FTC Legal Framework website (http://www.ftc.gov/ftc/legal.htm) includes helpful information and a handy form for submitting reports.

Subduing the wild beasts

Reports regarding inappropriate email sent from campus systems or websites posted on ".berkeley.edu" servers may be sent to abuse@berkeley.edu for review. However, abuse@berkeley cannot take any action on activities that originate from an off-campus Internet Service Provider (ISP). Complaints about email or websites which originate off-campus need to be addressed to the sender or site creator, or their service provider, e.g., abuse@ispname or postmaster@ispname.

Before taking any action in response to an email message, you should ensure that you are looking at the "expanded" version of network routing headers. The full-length header information may help to determine whether there were any forgeries, unauthorized relays, or other subterfuges involved in the transmission. If you are using Eudora software to receive your email, the default view eliminates many of the header lines. However, you can view expanded email routing headers by opening the message's window and clicking on the "Blah, blah, blah" button in the window's menu bar. (I'm not kidding--this really is the way it works.)

If you need help expanding or interpreting email headers, contact the consultants for the system on which you received the email, e.g., consult@uclink.berkeley.edu or consult@socrates.berkeley.edu. If you have questions about policies or guidelines governing the appropriate use of campus computing and network resources, see Selected Policies and Guidelines Applying to the Use of Berkeley Campus Computing and Network Resources (http://socrates.berkeley.edu:7015/policy/) or send email to policy@uclink.berkeley.edu.