Wow! I just received a personal letter from Steven King, my favorite horror author!

Ah, crap! Its just a forwarded e-mail from a stranger. No offense intended dude, but I consider such forwarded e-mail to be spam. I mean, when you fall for these e-mail forwarding gimmicks you are not really communicating with your friends. What you are really telling them is that you have nothing at all to share with them (how your day went, a funny thing that your daughter said, what happened at the mall, etc.) so you'd rather send them some spam instead (in this particular instance: a few items your friends would already know about you plus a whole lot of trivial things that your friends DON'T particularly care to know).

By the way, how long have you had your head buried in the sand? Have you not heard about the dangers of phishing? (http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/p/phishing.html) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phishing) (http://www.consumer.gov/idtheft/) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_theft) Just out of curiosity to see what I could get by with, I created a profile for you at Yahoo Personals using the info from your spam. Do you really want your neighbors, preacher, or boss to see what I wrote? Don't worry -- I deleted it, but there are a couple of outlaw bikers who are eager to become your "friend" if ya know what I mean. ;-)

If you are still intent on forwarding e-mail to strangers, you should at least read the documentation of your e-mail program to learn how to use the BCC (Blind Carbon-Copy) feature so that you don't put your friends in danger as well. You might also want to contact the person who forwarded the spam to you (perhaps use this as an excuse to place a call or go visit them since it is obvious you are having trouble using the internet for communication) and tutor them in BCC usage and the dangers of phishing.

I truly do not mean to be degrading or insulting in any way. But I, like so many others, consider personal privacy to be a very serious matter. So I hope you will forgive my harshness when I say: How stupid does a person have to be to not recognize the following items as an obvious phishing scam?

2. Name as it appears on your birth certificate:
7. Place of Birth:
25. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? What credit card?
Then send this to a bunch of people you know INCLUDING the person
who sent it to you!

Nathan.

*****************************************
* The 'identity theft' forwarded e-mail *
* follows (personal contents removed) *
*****************************************

SUBJECT: Friends Survey

"Sign up for cheap internet and help a fellow out: http://1.connectto.net/?s_c=1043717707 "

How much do you really know about our friends and family? This is a
questionnaire to get to know them better. Read through the comments
below about your friend and then make sure you read the
instructions at the bottom. Have fun!

1. What time is it now?
2. Name as it appears on your birth certificate:
3. Nicknames:
4. How many piercings?
5. What is the most recent movie you have been to?
6. Eye color:
7. Place of Birth:
8. Favorite Foods:
9. Ever been to Africa?
10. Ever been toilet papering?
11. Ever did a Chinese fire-drill?
12. Been in a car accident?
13. Ever love anyone so much it made you cry?
14. Croutons or bacon bits?
15. Favorite day of the week?
16. Favorite Restaurant:
17. Favorite Flower:
18. Favorite sport to watch:
19. Favorite drink:
20. Disney or Warner Brothers:
21. Favorite fast food restaurant?
22. What color is your bed room carpet?
23. How many times did you fail your driver's test?
24. Who was your last e-mail from (excluding this one)?
25. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? What credit card?
26. What do you do most often when you are bored?
27. Bedtime:
28. Who will respond to this email the quickest?
29. Who is the person you sent this to that is least likely to respond?
30. Favorite TV shows:
31. The last person you went to dinner with was?
32. Ford or Chevy?
33. What are you listening to:
34. What is your favorite color:
35. Lake, ocean, river:
36. How many tattoos do you have?
37. Which came first, chicken or the egg?
38. To how many people are you sending this email?
39. If you could be any age in life or re-live any age?
40. Time you finished this e-mail?

Return Directions: Now, here's what you are supposed to do and please
don't spoil the fun. Copy (not forward) this entire e-mail and paste it
into a new e-mail that you will send. If you don't know how to copy and
paste: Highlight the section that you want to copy by placing the mouse
pointer at the beginning of the text, hold down the left mouse button and
drag the mouse to the bottom of the text. The click Edit on the menu
bar (at the top of the screen) , choose copy. Open the new e-mail , click
down in the document part (where you type your e-mail) , click Edit on the Menu
bar again, and choose paste. Change all of the answers so that they apply
to you. Then send this to a bunch of people you know INCLUDING the person
who sent it to you! The theory is that you will learn a lot of little known
facts about those who know you.