A forwarded e-mail that Michelle received this morning required a fact check. Most forwarded messages do. It has become standard practice for many of us to automatically open myth debunking websites like Snopes.com when we see FW: in the subject line of an e-mail. Not that we need to check the veracity of these claims, but that we need to have a response to reply to the sender to inform them about the flaw in the message.
I’ve decided that it is time to create a carnivore-like e-mail filtering system based on urban myths and scams that will automatically and permanently deletes chain letters. Snopes.com already has a tremendous database of junk subjects. All we need is a convincing argument that these forwarded messages are a threat to homeland security and poof! we can get funding for such a system. Maybe we can even have the authors of such offending chain mails unlawfully detained.