Subject: Posted hoax petitions

9. *****
 Q: How should I react to "a dying boy's last wish"?

 A: Don't fall into these traps. Some users get their kicks out of
trying to play pranks on unsuspecting neophyte users on the net.
These hoaxes most often take the form of pleas to send email
messages or ordinary post cards (or even money in some blatant
cases). "Dying boy's last wish", "Support a cause" or the somewhat
different "Make money fast" pyramid scheme are among the most
common.
   Note that the truth value of the original pleas is NOT the real
issue here. (If you are interested in that aspect e.g. in the
last-wish case, check the Guinness Book of World Records).
Hall-marks of these plea-postings are that they are either repeats
of age-old themes, or are completely fictitious. Another hall-mark
of these pranks is that fulfilling the petitions would probably
cause havoc on the net and/or the postal system at some address. (As
for the pyramid schemes, beware! They are outright illegal in some
countries, like the U.S.)
   These petitions can occur in innumerable forms. One that was at
one time very popular in Finland is "write to your congress person
about the impending registration of, and tax-levy on, all modem
users". This always causes a stir, since such idiocy could well be
conceivable in this country.
   The best reaction to these postings is simply to ignore them. At
best the pleas are misplaced. The newsgroups should keep to their
own subjects. Sending a flame would most probably be useless, since
the poster's mail address may be forged, or even someone else's
cracked userid. Better just to hope that some alert system manager
gets wind of who the original prankster is, and takes appropriate
action. What you shouldn't do under any circumstances is trying to
cram the mailbox of the potential culprit. You'll just hurt the
systems along the feed, and you may end up being a worse offender
than the original nitwit. If you feel that you absolutely want to
react in some way, perhaps the best alternative is to see if you can
contact the postmaster or the system manager of the prankster's
site, and discuss the problem with him/her.
   Another childish form of pranks on the net are the bogus
newsgroups (e.g. alt.swedish.bork.bork.bork, alt.flame.pizza.greasy).
The best course of action for an ordinary user is just to
unsubscribe, and again hope that the alert system managers will put
things right. For the couple of first times these prank newsgroups
may seem funny, but after a while you'll see that they are so
similar repeats of the same themes that they are just plain boring.
(Note: By a bogus newsgroup I mean a newsgroup with no discussion in
it, and which will be rejected by your newsreader. Sometimes there
really are alt newsgroups with these elaborate names with genuine
discussion in them. I am not referring to them, but to the empty
bastardizations).
   It is naturally difficult to generalize the motives behind these
practical jokes, but my understanding is that in many cases it is a
question of a kind of a misplaced creativity rather than outright
malice. It would be much better for everybody if this creativity
were directed in a more productive manner.

 A2: Usenet has also come to know an unfortunate phenomenon that is
called spamming in the Usenet parlance. It means sending the same
off-topic advertisement (or a similar undesirable posting) to many
newsgroups all over the net. The most notorious example so far is
the Canter & Siegel "green card posting" where a couple of two U.S.
based lawyers copied to some 5500 newsgroups their offer to send
against payment public immigration lottery information. The counter
reaction from the Usenet users was fierce.
   My general advice to you if you see a spam on the Usenet news is
the following. Don't do anything about it. Just skip it. In
particular, do NOT resort to mail bombing the culprit. You'll only
end up hurting the feed and the host site more than the original
offender. You can rest assured that there are enough of experienced
users you will notify the sender's postmaster of the problem. I
repeat, newcomers, do not react to Usenet spamming!
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