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So, you get this e-mail and it tells you some very interesting stuff -- so interesting and compelling it may include facts from doctors. And it suggests that if you do nothing else, you pass it on to everyone in your address book. Or at least five people. Here are some examples. You may have seen one or two of them:

Here's what happened. My Aunt Cynthia was having lunch at Neiman Marcus with my cousin. For dessert, they had these delicious cookies and my aunt asked the waitress for the recipe. The waitress said they the recipe sold for "two fifty." My Aunt thought that meant $2.50 said OK. But when she got her bill they charged her $250. She was furious but they wouldn't refund her money. So in revenge, she's giving away the recipe to anyone who wants it.

(Some company) is tracking this e-mail and will send you money if you forward this e-mail. Or...

(Some other company)is testing an e-mail tracker and will send you a gift certificate. Or...(and this one is good)

(Some institution) is using its e-mail tracker and will donate money for some poor kid's operation or to raise funds for an orphan of Sept. 11.

I Am Mariam Abacha, Widow Of The Late Nigerian Head Of State, Gen. Sani Abacha. After He Death Of My Husband Who Died Mysteriously As A Result Of Cardiac Arrest, I Was Informed By Our Lawyer, Bello Gambari That, My Husband Who At That Time Was The President Of Nigeria, Called Him And Conducted Him Round His Apartment And Showed Him Four Metal Boxes Containing Money All In Foreign Exchange And He Equally Made Him Believe That Those Boxes Are For Onward Transfer To His Overseas Counterpart For Personal Investment.

As for the second one, there is no way for a company to track an e-mail message that goes from one box to the other. The idea is ludicrous. Also, no one ever made money by forwarding an e-mail. Pressing the delete key/clicking on the delete button is much easier and more rewarding.

The last one is all too known: Some son or daughter of some person from a far away country wants to give you money. Doesn't that sound a tad strange? When you get out of the spell of magically receiving more money than you thought you'd ever have, yes it does. Unfortunately, to some people, it seems to make perfect sense and these people end up losing their money while gaining absolutely nothing. On the plus side, there are stories of people who have conned these con-artists and had them arrested, all the while making fools of them. Makes for great reading!

Those ones may seem a bit obvious to some, but there are others that used a tad more thought when composing the e-mail. One fairly recent hoax suggested research from Johns Hopkins supported the claim. You can read a response from the Johns Hopkins university regarding this claim by clicking this link.

The bottom line is, any e-mail that asks you for any amount of money or to forward the message on to other people as a means of generating revenue is very obviously a fabrication. More often than not, even the mails that contain medical information by a reputable institution and, at the same time, urges you to forward this e-mail on to others is, again, a complete hoax. When new serious medical information comes out, you see it on news sites. When the avian flu started making its way around the world, you saw it on the news every day. You didn't see it in an e-mail that suggested you pass it on to your friends.

Some may say, "But what if it's unconventional news that still has merit but hasn't gained interest in the media?" This is a completely valid response, to which I suggest going to your nearest search engine, such as Google or Yahoo and type in key words that would identify the mail, such as "hoax johns hopkins" or "hoax plastic microwave" or some such thing. Please don't include the quotation marks. I suggest including "hoax" because it will very quickly narrow down the missive if it is, indeed, a hoax.

Of course, there is always the question, "What do these people who have nothing to gain from people forwarding e-mails, such as the medical hoaxes, have to gain?" Nothing except to see their work spread through the Internet. It doesn't harm anyone, except to mis-educate the masses about something apparently innocuous. So why be wary about e-mails that don't harm people overtly? Because a) the spread of ignorance is never harmless in the grander scheme of things and b) it contributes to the spam that consumes so much traffic on the Internet, making traffic slower for the important things. Have you ever sent an e-mail to someone only to have it take over 10 minutes? Or even 30 minutes? If the spam of the Internet would dissipate, you would rarely such delays. E-mail should take a few seconds to cross the world. I know -- I've seen it happen many times.

To summarise: Anyone who asks you for money through the Internet with a promise to give you more back is hoping you're one of those suckers that were born in that special minute. Delete these mails without a second thought. Real people like you have lost thousands of dollars -- sometimes hundreds of thousands -- because they thought some stranger was going to send them a lot of money back. It's sad, which is why we have to keep vigilant about scams. Also, if the e-mail is meant for your benefit, somehow, and asks you to forward it to others, chances are there's something not right about it. Next time you feel the urge to help someone and click on the Forward button, think twice!

For a good laugh, here's a link to a site that has some colourful language (read: not for the little ones) but does result in an average person scamming the scammer. Sometimes, life is beautiful.

Next week, we'll talk about online shopping. Is your credit card safe? What can you do to prevent nefarious ne'er-do-well types from finding out your personal information?

If you have any comments, questions or concerns about this newsletter, feel free to e-mail me at sean@beggs.ca.