BellaOnline Forums News and Politics Urban Legends Free Applebee's Gift Certificate Hoax

This is a hoax (and a direct copy of previous hoaxes like the Cracker Barrel hoax), circulating in e-mail:

I'm always surprised when people think "someone" is tracking the email they send. Talk about a scary thought? There's no way that anybody knows what email you are sending, except maybe your ISP, and they certainly don't give that information out.

The "someone" has got a name, if they need to, your e-mail will be tracked in no time. You better know for yourself if your persona is attracting attention of such enteties.

You're talking about a truly exterme circumstance. It happens, but you generally have to do something fairly serious to warrant it--be the tracker a government or law enforcement official, a sophisticated hacker, etc. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

The idea that corporations such as Applebee's track random e-mail chain letters for the purpose of some bizaare promotion is ludicrous. In that, I completely agree with Lisa.

FWIW everyday Joes CAN track e-mails, but only in very limited manner. One such free method is trackthis.cc
Neat toy, but not terribly useful.

I get so much [censored] through my boxes daily, I can't imagine ever caring enough to actively track anyone else's mail! <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

I'm talking about the cases when someone IS interested in tracking your e-mail thinking you may pass on some valuable info in it.

If you're talking about say the FBI or someone, they'd need to show cause before they began something like that. And sure they could figure out what your ISP email is. But believe me, hackers don't use their own ISP email. There are enough anonymous sites out there that good hackers are really nasty to track down. I dated a few <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

And Applebee's hardly falls into this realm, to do that for every single person in the world <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Then I'm sorry, but I really don't understand your point, other than to be contrary.

Nor FBI, nor CIA, nor other agencies need nothing to do e-mail tracking or similar things, if they really need to, they'll do it.

I was not talking about the very question of the thread, but about the general possibility of being hacked. If someone needs to - your e-mail will be traced and hacked or cracked. As I said, you better know for yourself if someone may be interested in doing so ... Do you understand my point now? Excuse me if it was off-topic.

As a CS major I'm well aware of the dangers. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />