Vent - Forwards at work

[WandererInGray]

*Argh!* :mad:

Anyone else have those couple of co-workers who feel the need to send forwards to everyone at work?
I get so tired of it...especially since 99% of them are stupid hoaxes that can easily be looked up on www.snopes.com and tossed in the trash as BS instead of passed on to 50 million people.

:rolls eyes:

Maybe I'm overreacting...but I've gotten to the point now where I look it up and then send a hoax Reply All to it. *grins* Signed "Advocate for Responsible Sharing of Internet Information"....

You'd think people have better stuff to do at work.

[Radocs]

I usually delete forwards without even reading them.

[kblackthorne]

Why isn't your IT department on them for mis-use of company resources? Your company probably has a written policy on this, though it may not be enforced. This kind of activity puts your company at serious risk, as most viruses are spread this way.

I've been working for the same company for something over 2 years. There have been ~counts~ 5 people who sent forwards. Most of them never made it past sending 1.

With the just plain Spam ones, I forward it to the IT department, their manager, and my manager immediately, with a comment like, "Thought you'd want to be aware I received this."

With the "urban legend" and "hoax" ones, they get my "You've been had" response. This includes a snippet from the Snopes record, a lecture on the potential dangers of sending these on (more about that in a minute), a lecture on what a REAL virus warning looks like (Boring, boring, boring. If you feel yourself getting nervous or frightened as you read it, it's probably a fraud) and a lecture on the proper way to deal with an actual virus threat -- which is to notify IT. And, of course, IT gets a copy. :devil:

In every case -- even when it was a virus hoax spread by the Director -- they have immediately found themselves swarming with IT-folk, and have never sent such a forward again.

As for the destructive power of hoaxes:

A while back, one was going around that talked about a virus McAffe was supposedly powerless against... but you could find by using the "search" function on your computer. It then gave detailed instructions for making sure this "virus" file was permanently & completely deleted from your computer.

Well, the file it has you search for (& delete) appears on every computer because it is part of the operating system software! Specifically, it is the file that allows your computer to handle long file names.

My mother received this hoax and followed the directions. I also received it and gave my response (always a "reply to all"). However, Mom's CD-Rom drive was not working (wouldn't spin), and so it took a great deal of work to get this file re-installed!

[WandererInGray]

*sighs* Govie IT....they're lax about that stuff.

[Mithrea]

Originally posted by WandererInGray
Maybe I'm overreacting...but I've gotten to the point now where I look it up and then send a hoax Reply All to it. *grins* Signed "Advocate for Responsible Sharing of Internet Information"....

:rotfl:

[Phoenix Blue]

Originally posted by WandererInGray
*sighs* Govie IT....they're lax about that stuff.
**Nods** Govvie IT typically has more important concerns, to be honest.

[kblackthorne]

What ever happened to "an ounce of prevention"?

Half the viruses I've seen in the past 3 years were spread by these kinds of forwards.

Would they rather have to do the clean-up job when the virus hits the server, giving everybody down-time until they can clean & re-start it? This just makes no sense to me...

[Phoenix Blue]

That "ounce of prevention" is spent toward things like network maintenance and intrusion prevention. A forwarded E-mail is small potatoes compared to preventing a network outage from a DDoS attack, after all.

I'm not saying there shouldn't be consequences; but most IT departments don't have time to monitor people's E-mails looking for this sort of thing. And honestly, the ones that do have this kind of time on their hands aren't doing their jobs.

The prevention has to occur at a lower level - folks like Wanderer and yourself saying, "Hey, knucklehead, keep this stuff off the network!" :cool:

Incidentally, any virus I've received was automatically forwarded to me thanks to the wonders of Microsoft Outlook. This is an altogether different barrel of fish.

[Cinnamon Girl]

What I really hate are the ones I get from this one particular client ~ she fowards me all kinds of jokes, chain mail, and political jokes/commentary. I hate it! And I don't like her too much either! And since she never puts subject lines in her emails, I have to open it half the time just to figure out if it's crap or not! :rolleyes:

Did y'all get forwarded that 'National Geographic' photo a while back? Of the shark supposedly about to chomp down on some British navy guy? That one came around our office from a Senior Partner and yeah, it was obviously a hoax, duh! Makes me wonder about the intelligence of senior management (as does their inability to use a fax! :lol: )

Wow, I really rambled there didn't I? OK, I'll stop now.

[mol]

One word.

SpamAssassin

Google for it.

[Raevyn]

Two comments -

That example you gave, kblackthorne, was also a problem here. Someone posted it and at least a few people ran off and deleted the file right away. That *is* dangerous - don't *ever* follow instructions you get to get rid of viruses from friends or anywhere other then a well known recognized antivirus site (ie. mcaffee or norton). I have to remind my dad of that because his friends online are always telling him to install a program or do this or that and of course he trusts them (they aren't being malicious, they just don't know either!), so I tell him don't do *anything* without asking me.

Second, PB is right. In a lot of cases the IT department doesn't have the time to monitor email, tho if you do forward it to your sysadmin and he has the time and inclination he'll probably tell the person to stop doing that or handle it, maybe even send out a company wide email warning people not to do that. In general tho, you're better to handle that in your own mail program.