chain spam?
Today, i got below mail on my school mailgroup from one of my friends.
Now the question is, is this mail true & genuine. Lets start.
* It is signed as "S. Dinesh Gopinath, I.A.S, Director of Medical & Research Div, Chennai." . Why would a IAS officer start sending such chain mail?
* Is there really person names Dinesh Gopinath, IAS. This name seems to be fictional.
when i googled for this name, i got just the pages which contain the below text.
when i googled for some other IAS person, i got a variety of pages, indicating the depts he has worked, awards etc.
* is there a entity called "Medical & Research Div, chennai" ?
when i googled for this term, again i get just the posts having the below test. I cudn't find the entity official post nor any mention of this anywhere else in the web. An org with name Medical & Research Div just doesn't make any sense to me. perhaps it's part some big org, say DRDO. but why medical & research..ha..gimme a break.
now that its clear that the author/orig sender is not a valid entries, lets get into the matter itself.
* "Disease Control Center" (in Paris)
when i googled for this , again similar results. i cudn't find the site of the organization.
frankly, even if the matter is heart-wrenching one, one shouldn't fwd such mails where the events/senders are not authentic.
:mail starts:
Dear Friends,
Kindly take a couple of minutes to go thru this mail. If useful may advise others also.
Please pass this on to others
This happened in Paris recently and may happen elsewhere also.
A few weeks ago, in a movie theatre, a person felt something poking from her seat.
When she got up to see what it was, she found a needle sticking out of the seat with a note attached saying "You have just been infected by HIV". The Disease Control Center (in Paris) reports many similar events in many other cities recently.
All tested needles were HIV Positive. The Center also reports that needles have been found in cash dispensers at public banking machines. We ask everyone to use extreme caution when faced with this kind of situation. All public chairs/seats should be inspected with vigilance and caution before use.
A careful visual inspection should be enough. In addition, they ask that each of you pass this message along to all members of your family and your friends of the potential danger.
Recently, one doctor has narrated a somewhat similar instance that happened
to one of his patients at the Priya Cinema in Delhi. A young girl, engaged and about to be married in a couple of months, was pricked while the movie was going on. The tag with the needle had the message "Welcome to the World of HIV family".
Though the doctors told her family that it takes about 6 months before the virus grows strong enough to start damaging the system and a healthy victim could survive about 5-6 years, the girl died in 4 months, perhaps more because of the "Shock thought".
We all have to be careful at public places, rest God help! Just think about saving a life by forwarding this message. Please, take a few seconds of your time to pass along.
With Regards,
S. Dinesh Gopinath, I.A.S, Director of Medical & Research Div, Chennai.
Rather than forwarding irrelevant mails, kindly pass this to every one.
Probably ur mail can help some save his/her life.
:mail ends:
PS:- there is seriously something wrong with me..i spent half-hour on this, while my project deadline looming big behind me!
posted by Veerapathiran @ 5:51 am
7 comments
7 Comments:
http://www.breakthechain.org/exclusives/hivseats.html
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/madmen/pinprick.htm
"A Louisiana man did sit on a needle in theatre in Baton Rouge in December, 1996, and sued the facility over this, but there was no note welcoming him to the world of AIDS or any indication of his contracting any infection."
If you are so upset for such a small issue then how are you going to deal with those forwards(hope you would be receiving)1) with satellite pictures provided by NASA,
2)how would you react on those mails which reads "Comet Collides with Earth in 5yrs-NASA".
Will you sue NASA?
People are always using internationally recognised names for their unethical forwards then why not false names and fase dept.
I would suggest not to dig too much in the forwards,just look into that if you find it useful.
The point is not how we should react when we get such forwarded emails. The point is to question why seemingly normal people go into a forwarding frenzy when they see something like this.
I think Veera is just pointing out how you can use the resources available to us to decide whether an email you receive is worth sending on. Neither of us said anything about suing anyone for forwarding such email.
If you are referring to the Louisiana man who sued the theatre - he did it only because he was injured at a place where one expects reasonable comfort. That has nothing to do with the emails that are being forwarded, except that it could, perhaps, be an inspiration for whoever started this.
Note that there is nothing unethical about the person who forwards such emails blindly, I would think that he is merely stupid. I wouldn't know about the ethics of the people who originate these emails, it could be just a prank which somehow blows out of proportion.
On a side note, I also don't understand where NASA comes into the picture. If at all you are worried about comets colliding with the Earth, I suggest you search for the terms "Swift-Tuttle" and "August 14, 2126".
hi anon, thx for the comments!
i'm not upset with the mails..
i usually delete all these mails without much thought..
but as alok points out, i cant think why people keep forwarding it..if you're fwding a fwd, u better apply some common sense to make sure its genuine or not.
cheers,
veera.
Hello!
My name is Miha and I'm from Romania. I also received this email(already translated in Romanian;) and felt very concerned that something like this could happen. But, before forwarding it, one needs to check the information - some might see why it's slightly different when you forward Garfield cartoons than when you say "always check the seat, or else you might get HIV" ... It seems this message is present in a lot of languages (just google the doc's name)....
The conclusion is that of a hoax: http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/hoaxes/hivneedles.html
http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/weekly/aa100798.htm
Veera, your way of analyzing what was wrong with the email really helped, thanks.
Mihalista.
I also googled and I found this article which i opend to see the pictures:
http://www.aidprojects.org/files/p26_Govind-Wynad_Trip.pdf
a few lines found under a picture changed my first impression:
"Dinesh inspects the pipe that supplies water to the Ashram.
The water is directed to the overhead tanks in the picture without any external prime mover.
It is my impression that some infrastructural improvements and additions have been made
since the last AID visit."
Hi Miha,
thanks for the comments..glad that somebody found it useful :-)
hi GG,
whats the comment you've put up..seems completely irrelevant to this post..
anyway keep coming back..
cheers,
veera
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