IN THE FIRST POST I described the 90# on your phone email, and began a list of the points that made me question it's real purpose.
"When someone goes to these lengths to warn people of a danger that doesn't exist I think it's more than a little suspicious."
The first two in the list were the number of authorities this simple email cites, and the fact that the link to Snopes was not to the page the email talked about.
Numbers three through five, and some conclusions, follow:
- Actually, why did he go to Snopes at all?
Scopes is a site for checking out urban legends: things like forwarded emails with false information.
If I received this email, I might have checked it out at Snopes. But if I were writing it, the idea would never have occurred to me. What made the author think that this information, which according to his story he got directly from the telephone company, was likely to show up in a phony email.
Unless, of course, he knew the information was misleading, and was simply trying to keep his readers from checking Snopes for themselves... - That sentence about the prisons.
"I was further informed that this scam has been originating from many local jails/prisons"
Notice the passive voice. He's gone out of his way not to say who informed him.
Add this to the subtext of that sentence, and, in fact, of the entire email, and it begins to be clear what the real message is: fear. - The very professional pressure that was put on the reader to forward the email.
This was very subtly done, even though it was in boldface. In a very short piece of writing, the reader was urged three different times (once very subtly) to hit the forward button immediately. Nicely done.
Perhaps too nicely...
I went to Snopes, and they do have a page on this story. It's classified as a "mixture of true and false information".
It seems that there are some business phone systems (fewer every day) of the PBX and PABX types where this kind of scam is possible.
However, and in direct contradiction to the email in question, there is no danger on a residential line, or on a cell phone.
So the author of this email was lying, pure and simple.
It took me about twenty seconds to find this out, using Google. Aside from the appropriate page on Snopes, which included a link to ATT on the subject, I found a page at the FCC.
If the writer had done half the research he claims, he would have known that there was no danger to a residential user, and that cell phones were safe.
So why did he go to all this trouble to write an email which would scare people about something they had no need to fear, and would make them think that they were not safe from imprisoned convicts even in their own homes?
I can't say for certain, of course, but the only motive I can see is to instill fear. To raise his reader's general level of anxiety.
And who would want to do that?
Someone who thinks that you're more likely to fall into line if you're afraid: afraid of other countries, afraid of illegal aliens, afraid of the poor, of gays, of other races... You name it. Just a nice, healthy, general level of anxiety.
It's not just one email.
Now that I think about it, many of the seemingly innocuous emails I receive are about something to be afraid of. Each one has little effect. But if you take them seriously at all, the cummulative effect could be quite impressive.
I'm not saying it's bad to warn people of danger. That's what I'm doing in this post, after all.
But when someone goes to these lengths to warn people of a danger that doesn't exist, and to get them to pass the warning along without checking, I think it's more than a little suspicious.
At least, that's what I think today.
