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Someone forwards you one of those chain emails...

... you know the ones. Send this to 12 people Jessica Mydeck's dog is going to die from the sulphates in Febreeze. Do you?

a) Reply, politely asking to be removed from their list.
b) Reply, sarcastically asking to be removed from their list.
c) Reply to all, including the obligatory debunking link from Snopes.
d) Forward it to all your friends.

Comments

e) Roll eyes, delete email, say nothing.

I'm with Dal for casual friends, or possibly option A if you don't care if you never hear from them again. For close friends and siblings who might take advice, I'd send a polite e-mail explaining that Microsoft isn't going to give you a free trip to Disneyland if you send a postcard to a kid who died of cancer five years ago, and introduce them to Snopes. I did that with both my sisters, and it worked fine.

I do option c, every time, with plenty of sarcasm and mockery thrown in for good measure. I usually throw in a demand that everyone who forwarded the original bit of idocy must now send the correction to the same list, with a note at the top that says, "I'm stupid, I'm sorry, and I won't do it again."

This may come as a surprise, but those people don't generally send me any more crap. Come to think of it, they don't send me much of anything...

I do a much quicker version of Squid's process. I shout at them to stop sending crap that's been debunked several times if they'd just take the time to look for it.

Works the same with less effort.

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