to think that people who follow the instruction to "forward this email to 20 of your friends," are either dim, or gullable, or both?

[wannaBe]

So today I received the following email:

"Marks & Spencer, in conjunction with Persimmon Homes, are giving away free vouchers. Marks & Spencer's are trying word-of-mouth advertising to introduce
its products and the reward you receive for advertising for them is free non-refundable vouchers to be used in any M & S store.

To receive your free vouchers by e-mail all you have to do is send this e-mail out to 8 people (for £100 of free vouchers) or 20 people (for £500 of free
vouchers). Within 2 weeks you will receive an e-mail with your vouchers attached.

They will contact you through your e-mail address.

Please mark a copy to:

[email protected]."

It is, of course, a hoax. I had absolutely no doubt of that before I'd even got to the end of reading it but I did varify it anyway so I could reply to the entire mailing list she'd sent it to with a link just to prove it.

But why are people so stupid?

[dirtylittlepunk]

ive had the bill gates microsoft one 7 times this weekend!
for each person you forward it too you get so many hundred dollars? its true..it was on the news

[onager]

Not just stupid, but strangely obedient. Ask someone why they send these things on or why they sent their bank details to a perfect stranger and they will probably say "but it said on the top of the email that I had to"

[CharCharBaGOOOOOOORE]

yanbu, I hate all blardy forwards! Bar the jokes MIL sends, some of them are quite funny.

[sweetgrapes]

I know! One of my friends ONLY sends forwards.
And then she has the cheek to email me saying 'For Gods sake reply to my mails'.
What mails??!!

[BouncingTurtleSkulls]

I quite agree.

Morons.

[SmileandWave]

I have no idea why people are so daft, do they not know how the delete button works perhaps?

[MsHighwater]

I get these from people who otherwise seem quite intelligent. Weird. Usually prefixed by "This is probably rubbish, but..."

[Seabright]

YANBU, I hate them. I got my first one by text the other day. Morons, the lot of them. 10 seconds on www.snopes.com would tell them they're hoaxes, but they never bother.

Same idiots who believe every stranger is a pervert.

[misshardbroom]

yes, I loathe them. Second only to being 'invited' to use truly crappy, usually mis-spelt Facebook applications e.g. 'What kind of mom will you be?'

[UnfortunatelyMurderedMe]

YANBU

[salsmum]

YANBU,
I hate those 'true friends' emails too...they usually come from friends who have moved away don't ring or get in touch n say something but send me these silly soppy 'friends forever' emails that they have forwarded to everyone on their contacts list ....then want me to send back...LOL.
sorry PMT rantin again

[childrenofthecornsilk]

I got that today as well. Very annoying.

[Flibbertyjibbet]

I think the apostrophe in 'Marks and Spencer's' would have given it away for me

If people fall for it then thats one massive list of real people's emails that someone can use for direct marketing crap.

[froggyfroofroo]

my sil sends these all the time and i can confirm she both dim and gullible. she sent the M&S one saying she couldn't use it in her country so did we want it? she really is thick.

it really pisses me off when she sends them because i dont want the 20 odd people she has forwarded it to seeing my email address.

[Twelvelegs]

I hate those along with the 'look at our boys in Iraq' photos (which is American anyway), fluffy kitten crap and sexy men 'oo this will cheer you up'.

Either send me a letter by email or bugger off!!

[TinkerBellesMum]

Sorry to resurect, but this game up when I was googling Andrew whatisface.

I've got a message I send out on FaceBook now everytime someone sends me one on there. It drives me mad, why can't people just take a couple of seconds to Google something and find out if it's real or not? I'll see if I can find my message in case anyone is interested.

[BloodyStranglingwithBling]

I know this is old, but going to jump in. My SIL also does these. But she also sends round the urban legend ones with personalied messages at the front saying, "guys, we should all be really careful because person x was at that nightclub/in that situation/whatever just last week" and then it's an email about flashing your lights at someone as gang initiation and will result in your murder or visitnig a certain bar will lead to you being sold into the sex trade.

She is SOOOOO thick.

[filz]

i get bloody texts aswell!

[beaniescreamyb]

I ALWAYS direct them to Snopes. Idiots.

[theyoungvisiter]

COMPLETELY agree. I have 2 or 3 incredibly gullible (yet otherwise quite intelligent) friends who do this all the time.

I started by replying just to them saying "I think you'll find if you google the first line of this email that it's a hoax..." then started to reply-all saying "Do not forward - this is a well-known hoax".

However another friend has obviously been getting even crosser because a couple of weeks ago he sent a reply all entirely in capitals saying "FOR GOD'S SAKE STOP CRAPPING IN MY INBOX WITH THESE STUPID EFFING HOAXES - DO A GOOGLE SEARCH YOU LAZY BINT".

Seemed to do the trick.

[TinkerBellesMum]

I can't find my message on the new facebook.