Hoax Chain E-mail Spreads False Facts About Red Planet
Aug 8, 2007, News Report
Experts have warned users not to forward a chain letter that has returned to
haunt e-mail users every August for the last 4 years. Sophos has received an
increase in reported sightings of the Giant Mars chain letter from computer
users in the last few days. The e-mails claim that the planet Mars will pass
close to Earth on 27 August.
Although it is true that the planet Mars passed extraordinarily close to
Earth in August 2003 (the closest the planets had been to each other for
some 60,000 years), the e-mail chain letter spreads across the internet
every August. It is advised that users should simply delete the e-mail, and
not forward it onto their friends and colleagues.
"Chain letters like this are too easily forwarded to friends, family and
colleagues without people using their common sense. Stories like this become
treated as fact, simple because they are repeated so often," said Graham
Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. "Hoaxes and chain letters
like Giant Mars are not harmless -- they waste time and bandwidth, and can
make support departments see red. Users need to be more skeptical, and ask
themselves whether everything they are told by e-mail can be believed."
Part of the chain letter reads as follows:
The Red Planet is about to be spectacular! This month and next, Earth is
catching up with Mars in an encounter that will culminate in the closest
approach between the two planets in recorded history. The next time Mars may
come this close is in 2287. Due to the way Jupiter's gravity tugs on Mars
and perturbs its orbit, astronomers can only be certain that Mars has not
come this close to Earth in the Last 5,000 years, but it may be as long as
60,000 years before it happens again.
"Up until 27 August it's likely that we will see more and more copies of
this chain letter spreading across the net," explained Cluley. "Then things
will die down -- until next year at least."
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