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Joyce Hatfield writes:
Here is an update on the Toll charge on email. So sorry - I should have
read all my email before sending the former message on.
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From: "Eddie & Donna" <hopper@pvtnetworks.net>
To: "Ray & Peggy" <vanderwerker@swconnect.net>,
"Kevin & Kimberli Roberts" <kevinsplace@webtv.net>,
"Kenneth & Jan" <kennethandjan@carlsbadnm.com>,
"William Hatfield" <jhatfield@cavemen.net>,
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Subject: Sorry
Date: Sat, 11 Mar 2000 13:33:47 -0700
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I am not sure how long you have been on the internet but
maybe chain letter, urban legends or etc. along with a long list of
names occurs in Pennsylvania. However, they do here and so I am sending
you a few of the websites that are on the list of rumors and hoaxes for
809 is one of the rumored phone scams and so is the e-mail one. Do not
let no one scare you for some idiot sends them out and it scares people
and they forward them on and consequently, they are just that, rumors
with a whole bunch of names on the list and all it does is take up a lot
of space on someone's hard drive. All those chain letters that say pray
fior so and so and if you don't, you'll have bad luck and so forth are
not to be believed. I have a whole list I have savedregarding those
urban legends and chain letters but I am just sending you two so you
won't worry about that as it isn't true! I am also going to send you a
joke or two and I hope these links will help to put your mind at ease.
I don't know what kind of weather you are having now but our nice
weather went by the wayside. It is snowing off and on and will be 28-38
all weekend and here yesterday it was 82. I guess that is Michigan for
you. I was kinda hoping we would finally get some nice weather and we
did for a few days but that was all.
Love,
Rea
Sightings, Notes & Updates
809 Area Code Phone Scam
08/05/99 - Various alerts are now circulating warning consumers not to
respond to phone, pager, or email requests to dial a number beginning
with
the 809 area code to "settle an unpaid account" to "collect a wonderful
prize," etc. According to the alerts, the area code is in the Caribbean
and
can be set up as a "pay-per-call" number (like 900 numbers in the
U.S.).
People who respond to these requests can get stuck with a whopping
phone bill for an international call.
This information is basically true. The warnings originated in an
edition of
Internet ScamBusters, a respectable newsletter that keeps subscribers
apprised of current frauds and scams. The original article appeared in
1996, but a recent AT&T publication indicates that the scam is still
active.
Multiple versions of the alert exist because people can and do alter
such
texts before sending them on, which means the specific message you
receive may or may not contain accurate details.
For that reason, recipients are best advised not to forward warnings
like
these any further. If you feel compelled to warn your friends of the
telephone scam, send them the URL of the original article instead:
http://www.scambusters.org/ScamBusters8.html
Update: Why was this 1996 alert revived three years later? David
Spalding ventures a theory in the latest edition of Hoax du Jour.
Lost in Cyberspace
08/19/99 - Here's further proof that email chain letters are more than
just a
nuisance.
************************************************************
Internet Access Rumor Won't Go Away
Dateline: 01/20/99 Update: 03/01/99
Even though it's been debunked by just about everybody, the rumor rages
on via forwarded email alerts: the U.S. government, we are told, is on
the
verge of enacting legislation that will raise our Internet access costs
by
allowing calls to ISPs to be charged at long-distance (i.e.,
per-minute)
rates.
The rumor is false, as I will explain shortly.
It is nonetheless popular, exemplifying a genre of Internet folklore
dating
back to the "modem tax" legend of the early '90s. The rumor then was
that
the FCC was about to approve a surcharge on all phone lines connected
to computer modems. A grassroots email campaign resulted in a flood of
protests to the FCC, in spite of the fact that it had no such ruling
under
consideration.
In similar fashion, the latest rumor has generated hundreds of
thousands of
email complaints from "well-meaning but misinformed people" over the
past two years, says the FCC.
Much like the issue of computer security, which has given rise to a
body of
lore including virus hoaxes, hacker alerts, and rumors of privacy
invasion,
low-cost access is and will likely always be a "hot button" topic among
Internet users, hence fertile ground for rumormongers. False rumors
often
paint a true picture of a community's deep-seated fears and concerns.
Here's a typical email rendering of the current one:
Date: Tuesday, January 05, 1999 7:50 PM
Subject: INPORTANT!!! PLEASE READ!!!!!!
THIS IS NO JOKE !!!
CNN stated that the Government would in two weeks
time decide to allow or not allow a Charge to
your phone bill equal to a long distance call
each time you access the internet.
The address is
http://www.house.gov/writerep/
Please visit the address above and fill out the
necessary form! This is not a joke....but REAL.
We all were aware that the Government has been
pressured by the telephone companies to consider
such a charge and now it's reality.....
If EACH one of us, forward this message on to
others in a hurry, we may be able to prevent this
injustice from happening!
The irony is that similar messages warning that the government will
make a
decision "in two weeks" have been circulating since early November,
more
than two months ago.
The earliest of these coincides with news reports about a ruling under
consideration by the FCC (not Congress) pertaining to "reciprocal
compensation" arrangements between local telephone companies. The
ruling (still pending at this writing) will decide whether calls to
ISPs should
be regarded as interstate transactions, since Internet traffic is not,
strictly
speaking, local. It would only affect the rates phone companies charge
each other for the use of local lines to complete such calls. (See the
FCC
Fact Sheet on this issue for a more thorough explanation.)
In some quarters, including news organizations such as CNN, this was
misinterpreted as having an impact on the rates phone companies charge
ISPs, and thus on consumer access fees. As CNN ominously reported on
November 7, "The cost of going online could go up significantly if the
Federal Communications Commission decides that dialing your local
Internet provider is a long-distance call."
It was an erroneous assumption. FCC chairman William Kennard had
announced the opposite just the day before: "The FCC has repeatedly
stated for the past decade - and is stating again today - that it is
NOT
repealing the ISP exemption that [prevents] Internet service providers
from
paying per-minute charges to local telephone companies."
Unfortunately, the rumor was well underway. Even now, in spite of
plenty
of information to the contrary on this site and elsewhere, people
persist in
believing the email alerts and continue forwarding them hither and yon
with
righteous indignation.
Two days ago, the Arizona Republic reported that Congressman Ed
Pastor had received no fewer than 85 messages of protest since
November, the bulk of them during the past two weeks. Pastor's office
responds to the protests by kindly denying the rumor and handing out
the
address of the FCC Web page listed above. Other members of Congress
are doing the same, and likely will be for quite some time to come.
"Internet misinformation resembles one of those fires that start up in
huge
piles of tires," observed the author of the Arizona Republic article.
"You
can knock them back, but never really put them out."
The FCC can vouch for that. Come to think of it, so can I.
Update:
Internet Access Rumor Revisited
FCC's Feb. 25 ruling does not impose long distance charges on
consumer access
For more information, see:
No Consumer Per-Minute Charges to Access ISPs
Dec. '98 Fact Sheet from the FCC
FCC Chairman's Statement
Nov. 11 speech to Regulatory Commissioners
FCC Again Says It Won't Tax Internet
Reuters news coverage, Nov. 7, 1998
Internet Access Fees (Again?) (NOT!)
David Spalding's in-depth 'Hoax du Jour' feature
************************************************************
> In a recent Harris On-line poll 38,562 men across the US
> were asked to identify woman's ultimate fantasy. 97.8% of
> the respondents said that a woman's ultimate fantasy is to
> have two men at once. While this has been verified by a
> recent sociological study, it appears that most men do not
> realize that in this fantasy, one man is cooking and the
> other is cleaning.
> >
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