Just received the same email from two of my friends today via Orkut. It read:
Important
Dear user because of sudden rush of people signing upto orkut is come to an attention that we are vastly running our of resources so with in a week any one who does not receive this scrap will be deleted of our server.
We know that you are still using this account We want to find out which users are actually using their orkut accounts so if you are using your then please send this scrap to every orkut user that you can if u do not pass this scrap to anyone then we will delete your accountFrom
Orkut Buyukkokten
I am still surprised how people can fall for hoaxes like this.
Please ask yourself some questions before you forward an hoax mail.
- Firstly who in the world is Orkut Buyukkokten? Why will he delete my account?
- Do I know that Orkut is run by Google?
- Have I bothered to research if this is a hoax or real?
- Do I realize that every message / email / post / scrap I make on Orkut actually consumes more resources. And that this very email I sent consumed some amount of resources. If Orkut is really facing a resource problem then this email will just bother them not solve that problem?
Of the four points I listed above, the third can be a starting point for any hoax or email that you suspect. Most probably, this has already been documented by someone.
These few questions can go a long way in knowing that the email was actually an hoax. And “being safe” is not a valid explanation for forwarding an hoax email.
So what do I do?
So next time you receive something similar please pause for two minutes before hitting that Forward button.
Open your favourite search engine and search for some words in that email. And if you find it to be already listed as a hoax please don’t send it.
You may feel you are not doing much by sending one mail, but the people you send it to send it to still more starting what is known as a “snowball effect” :O
If all of us decide to stop and not send that hoax, it can mean a lot of less emails, a reduced chain (and hopefully terminated sometime) and a lot of resources saved! 😀
Oh i receive lots like this from my frnds 🙂 my hotmail accounts is doomed…its ok…gmail for the win….and i want to test something…IF YOU DO NOT POST THE WORD \”AJAY IS GREAT\” IN YOUR COMMENT YOU WILL HAVE BAD LUCK AND YOUR e-mail account will get deleted…you will never find true love ever again….
From
Aditya CEO of the Internet XD
[…] Was really irritated so the blog entry. […]
Ajay is GREAT!!! 😉
by the wat Orkut Buyukkokten is the main man behind orkut. he is a google engineer who developed orkut in his free time. he also has a id in orkut. also there was a reply on orkut help by Orkut Buyukkokten himself over this issue
And many of these e-mail that do the rounds ends up having an insane amount of e-mail addresses in them. When they finally end up in the inbox of some spammer, those addresses get added to some spammer list.
So be nice to your friends, don’t sign them up on spam lists!
Thanks Spamhuntress for this comment. Hopefully users will take good notice of it and understand that forwarind hoaxes is only detrimental.
Some just never learn. My dad is an example of this. He wouldn’t be technical enough to have an Orkut account, but I get all kinds of virus warnings and stuff. The few times it is real, I usually knew about it days before.
He will also forward just about anything religous, funny, or political to at least 10 people, usually far more. Those chain emails are just as bad as these hoaxes as far as helping spammers build their lists.
I have at least got him to use BCC for most of his mass useless forwards. But he rarely removes the long string of previous recipients so all of those addresses still potentially end up in the hands of spammers.
i desperately want an account into orkut can anybody give me one?????????/
Arvind don’t you have any friends on Orkut who can invite you?
Please don’t ask for invites here. I do not invite persons who I do not know personally.
Sorry.
[…] I last posted about a similar orkut hoax and now I’ve received over 10 messages in the past 3 days from friends with contents as follows: Dear user because of sudden rush of people signing upto orkut is come to an attention that we are vastly running our of resources so with in a week any one who does not receive this scrap will be deleted of our server. We know that you are still using this account We want to find out which users are actually using their orkut accounts so if you are using your then please send this scrap to every orkut user that you can if u do not pass this scrap to anyone then we will delete your account […]
i did a yahoo search for orkut hoax and yours was in the top five links 🙂 small world, eh?
and yes, my inbox has been flooded by people who fell for it. *sigh*
i feel like taking an axe and ramming it into a few heads. Pointy end first.
*sigh*
What do I say, I’m famous 😉
Have you tried searching for Ajay?
this is something i posted on my orkut profile and i must say i stopped getting these forwards. i guess people reading my profile would immediately know they would be receiving a email from me telling them exactly how studid they are.
———–>
I?ll tell you what really annoys me. What really annoys me is an idiot who doesn?t know he?s an idiot. Actually being an idiot is reason enough for me to hate you. I have 48 people on my friend-list who are complete morons! Yes you know who you are and no I?m not going to tell anyone who you are.
So I wake up this morning only to find 48 messages clogging my inbox and pushing my important emails back. They all had the following subject ?Beware of being thrown out of Orkut?. Now I have taken time out to explain to you imbeciles how you can help your friends by NOT WASTING THEIR TIME!
1) ?Dear user because of
sudden rush of people signing upto orkut is come to an attention
that we
are vastly running our of resources so with in a week any one who
does not receive this scrap will be deleted of our server.?
Notice the English. I?m going to ignore the lower-case U in user. But you can?t overlook the crappy diamond comics-esque ??people signing upto(?) orkut is come to an attention?? Now this could only be the work of a person from a certain community in India. And I can also pin-point the college this person graduated from. Now of course he could really be working for Orkut, so at this stage let?s give him the benefit of the doubt and move on.
2) ??We know
that you are still using this account We want to find out which
users
are actually using their orkut accounts so if you are using your
then please send this scrap to every orkut user that you can if u do
not pass this scrap to anyone then we will delete your account??
I mean come on? come on! If you?re still not convinced after this one, I?m quite sure you?re the person who still opens attachments from unknown senders who don?t specify what those attachments contain.
? We know?.. we want to find out?? My god if they know why do they want to find out? And if they really need to find out whether I?m really using this account, why don?t they just check when the last message was sent or received or when was the last time I scrapped someone! Now if the reason they can?t do that is because of the privacy issue then how the fuck are they going to be able to trace this one!! And don?t tell me they have a word-tracker that is designed only to track down messages sent with the exact content as that ?warning? message because it?s stupid.
3) ?Just
follow these simple steps. 1. Click on the \”Messages Tab\” in your
account. 2. Click on the \”compose mail\” option which is the last one
of
the four icons you see together. 3. Select \”all friends\” 4. Cut and
Paste this mail.?
And that?s exactly what you did, and completely pissed me off on such an awesome day! Why the fuck would you have to select ?all friends?? Why isn?t there a name? Why hasn?t Orkut contacted people individually? It is possible for them to send emails to all their members at once like hotmail does. Even shitty small websites send out e-newsletters to thousands of subscribers at once.
But all this is beside the point. I?ve received this email before, and I haven?t forwarded it to anyone. I didn?t get deleted in a week. Boy, I?m lucky aren?t I!
Remember all those forwards supposedly from ?Yahoo? threatening to delete your email account if you didn?t forward their mail to 20 people? Did u notice the name ?Joe Smith?? Did you notice how Joe?s position was ?Yahoo Manager?? Did you notice that Joe didn?t even get an authentic Yahoo logo to add to his outgoing ?official? emails?which even my 5 yr old nephew can ?right-click and save? from their hompage? Instead Joe had to make his own e-letter-head using Ariel 36 point in bright ?whorish? red.
Now if you don?t have the time to read emails you receive, please don?t waste my time.
Also, please note: Yet again, I?ve noticed a majority of you think you are Clever/Quickwitted.