SPAM

I was thinking about what was going through the minds of those forwarders of chain mails. One can think of himself having good intention, by forwarding emails so that he/she can help whoever needy claimed by the anonymous chain mail; or so that his/her friends can be informed by the so-called freebies.

By doing so, on purpose or not, one is selling not only his/her own but also his/her whole address book of friends’ email to the international spam list. I am not stopping people from trying to be hero, but I am urging people to think twice before acting. Do you ever wonder how spam marketers can find everyone’s email in such short time? Other than slowly fishing on those email links foolishly posted on the web, bundled chain mails which eventually got forwarded back to the spam marketers are like full net of fishes to commercial fishers. Lastly, although one doesn’t get hang for doing so, spreading chain mails are still illegal.

If anyone are truly for helping the needy, what is the reason to wait for such prompting? I personally do not believe in giving a hand because of sudden impulse of guilt. No one is stopping anyone from doing good to the society. If you want to donate, do it directly. Go to the salvation army or homes, any salvage charity to donate your clothes, food and cash. If you think you have the commitment, join an activist movement like SPCA and ACRE, and become a volunteer. If you want to do more, participant in some national or even international relieve programs.

If you just cannot make yourself do good, nothing can stop you from karma.

Some other supporting information I found about Chain Letters:
http://www.cs.rutgers.edu/~watrous/chain-letters.html

Amended:
Refer to 2.1.1 of Netiquette Guidelines:
http://rfc.net/rfc1855.html

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ADOLF LAM
Is your head lighter now?