There is an entire family of urban legends I want to squelch in one fell swoop. Please read this carefully: NO ONE IS EVER GOING TO GIVE YOU ANYTHING FOR FORWARDING AN EMAIL MESSAGE TO ALL OF YOUR FRIENDS. PERIOD. I don't care what you might have heard from other people. YOU CAN'T GET SOMETHING FOR NOTHING, and you certainly can't get something for simply forwarding an email to all of your friends.

With that said, you'd be surprised at how many people still believe that these silly "forward an email to all of your friends and something great will happen" hoaxes are true. What follows is the truth about many of the "email forwarding" hoaxes I have received overthe past couple of weeks. Pay close attention to these -- you'll notice a distinct pattern:

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You'll notice a distinct pattern

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• Abercrombie & Fitch is NOT going to give you a free gift certificate for forwarding an email message to all of your friends.



• Bath & Body Works is NOT going to give you a free gift certificate for forwarding an email message to all of your friends.



• Columbia House is NOT going to send you 10 free CDs for forwarding an email message to all of your friends.



• The Gap is NOT going to give you free cargo pants and Hawaiian shirts for forwarding an email message to all of your friends.



• The Guinness Book of World Records is NOT going to add your name to their book for forwarding an email message to all of your friends.



• Honda is NOT going to give you a free car for forwarding an email message to all of your friends.



• IBM is NOT going to give you a free computer for forwarding an email message to all of your friends.



• J. Crew is NOT going to send you a $50 gift certificate for forwarding an email message to all of your friends.



• M&M's is NOT going to give you a free case of M&Ms for forwarding an email message to all of your friends. [This one is my favorite!]



• The newly merged Microsoft and AOL is NOT going to give you money for forwarding an email message to all of your friends [and, even sillier, not only have Microsoft and AOL NOT merged -- US antitrust laws would prohibit such a merger -- but Microsoft and AOL are BITTER ENEMIES!]



• Microsoft is NOT going to give you free money for forwarding an email message to all of your friends.



• Microsoft is also NOT going to give you a free copy of Windows 98 for forwarding an email message to all of your friends.



• Microsoft and Disney are NOT going to give you a free trip to Disney World for forwarding an email message to all of your friends.



• The Miller Brewing Company is NOT going to give you a free six-pack of beer for forwarding an email message to all of your friends.



• Nike is NOT going to give you free shoes for forwarding an email message to all of your friends.



• Old Navy is NOT going to give you a free $25 gift card for forwarding an email message to all of your friends.



• Some unnamed billionaire is NOT going to make a donation to a dying child in return for your forwarding an email message to all of your friends.



• Some cancer or disease society is NOT going to make a donation to a dying child in return for your forwarding an email message to all of your friends. [In fact, every one of the Net's "dying kid" stories is an outright hoax ... NOT ONE has been true.]



• Some stranger is NOT going to magically cause a really neat movie to pop-up on your screen in return for your forwarding an email message to all of your friends.

Did you notice an underlying theme in all of these? NO ONE IS EVER GOING TO GIVE YOU ANYTHING FOR SIMPLY FORWARDING AN EMAIL MESSAGE TO ALL OF YOUR FRIENDS! (Hmm, have we read THAT before?)

What should you do if you receive an "email forwarding" message that doesn't appear on our list? Should you forward the message to all of your friends on the off chance that it just might be true? Of course not. Regardless of how the message is written, it is still a hoax. And, unfortunately, one of the prices of Net citizenship is vigilance-- you have to be constantly watching for old hoaxes and urban legends masquerading as new.

One way to keep up with Net hoaxes and urban legends, especially the myriad email forwarding hoaxes, is to bookmark and frequently visit:

[ http://www.snopes.com/ ]
[ http://urbanlegends.about.com/ ]
[ http://darkrose-bds.com/hoax/hoax.htm

The other way to keep up with Net hoaxes and urban legends is to start looking for patterns in these hoaxes. All email virus warning hoaxes follow the same pattern. All "forward an email to all of your friends and something great will happen" hoaxes also follow a pattern, as do all of the "dying kid" hoaxes. Train yourself to recognize these patterns and you will become a valuable Net asset, able to protect yourself from future hoaxes and, more importantly, able to share your Net-hoax-busting knowledge with your friends, family, and co-workers.