[PriernPayorse]

I have so many well-intentioned Christian friends who send me an email with an urgent request to send to others within a specified time of minutes, hours, days for a miracle. Failure to do so will break the thread and we are asked to continue the email. Many are predicated on good thoughts and Christian values. I always feel sad not sending them and, in some cases, feel a tad guilty. I would rather receive this type of email rather than those which are vicious and cruel. I just never know whether I am doing the right thing by ignoring the requests. I will say the prayer but do not forward the email. I feel like I am letting my friends down but cannot do this as a believing Orthodox. Any suggestions. Thank you.

[Siffidiolla]

If in doubt don't. I too get many of these. They are meant for only one thing; to clog up the internet system. Yes they are emotional and have a good touchy feely to them and yes i have too forwarded them on. However if 10 people get this and are instructed to send it to 10 people each or their entire address book, (I have over 1200 people in mine) and if this e-mail happens to have a virus attached as many do, how many people by the power of multiples now have this virus in just 1 day and it only jams up and slows down the internet.

If I do get one of these that I persoanlly want to forward not based on 5 years of bad luck or the penalty of missing my chance at some impossible monetary gift from a stranger in as many days I send to people, I will delete all the junk at the bottom with these instructions and only send on the meat of the touchy feely part. I also have a pretty good virus scanner and can be assured I am not receiving or sending a virus or trojan.

Just like the 419 scams, just delete them. They are always from a PC pint of view and do we really want to forward this as our agreement to this way of thinking? I have even responded to the person that sent it to me dissecting it and correcting it with proper Orthodox praxis. I don't usually get any more junk from that person.

Paul

[Gvadelunar]

Do not get in the habit of forwarding those on. Many of the people you send them to will just delete them anyway. These chains need to be broken. All they really do is contribute to network congestion and mail server overload.

Don't feel guilty, just delete it!

[AccusaJalsBub]

Eugenia, such emails are the modern equivalent of chain letters. Ignore and delete them. The same goes for the Nigerian bank scam emails and their variants.

[accotMask17]

This is such a childish thing. And, more importantly, it is a form of blackmail.

When the sender of an e-mail is unfamiliar I just delete it without opening it. I have a spam control on my e-mail but that doesn't stop some really idiotic mail getting through.

I'm always winning things - and not just via e-mail
When I used to get Time Magazine - back when I still respected it - I was always in the winning 10 or 100 or whatever in their lottery. Waste of time and an insult to our intelligence.

Our time is precious and I for one simply get rid of anything that wastes my time.

Effie

[KraskiNetu]

Thank you for answering and solidifying what I think to be a correct approach. BTW I never thought about clogging the internet. I will say a prayer for the person and delete. I think this is a good thing for me...Eugenia