Spam

Svetlana’s sending on a chain mail has consequences.

...

Eva: You included my name in that chain letter, and the amount of spam in my mailbox jumped.

Svetlana: Coincidence, surely?

Eva: Explain this. I haven’t had anything but spam in Spanish for months, and not 24 hours after you put my email on your chain letter, I start getting spam from Nigeria and Belgium and, get this, from Germany.

Svetlana: You are German, no?

Eva: I get this email from a woman called Anina Buss. She claims to know me. She offers to go into business with me.

Svetlana: Lucky?

Eva: Where does she find out my email? Why does she know things about me?

Svetlana: What business does she suggest?

Eva: Vitamin pills.

Svetlana: Vitamin pills are good.

Eva: Vitamins to enhance language learning? Con.

________________

Voice-over

It could be a con. But it could also be Svetlana playing a joke on Eva.

Chain mail

Eva received a chain email from Svetlana.

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Eva: That email, about adding your name and passing it on, was from you, right?

Svetlana: Well, it was for a children’s science fair.

Eva: You know, don’t you, what those chain emails are for, don’t you?

Svetlana: Well, for spreading the word about a cause, umm, helping people social network?

Eva: I can’t believe it. You know, they’re to collect email addresses for spammers. You just don’t pass them on. Not if you want to leak your friends’ email addresses to spammers.

Svetlana: It was from a friend, I just thought…

Eva: Of course it was from a friend. Where have you been all these years?

____________________

Voice-over

Chain letters, passed by hand in the playground, were innocuous enough. Some of the goblins lurking in potholes on the digital road, are just waiting for you miss your step. Steer clear.

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