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Thread ID: 23550	2002-08-19 02:16:00	Off topic: Urban myths can cost you big time	Biggles (121)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
72263	2002-08-19 22:53:00	> A warning and fine would be more apropriate in my > opinon An employer cannot "fine" employees! Normal employer/employee contracts allow warnings before dismissal unless the offence is deemed gross negligence or criminal in nature. Slander would fit both categories, I guess. Harsh though.	godfather (25)
72264	2002-08-19 23:32:00	A similar story to NZStan's . A few months back two people at work independantly forwarded to the whole company the following email: I have received this warning from a friend in the Police in Auckland please be wary while at ATM machines . 'WARNING' The latest ATM scam involves thieves putting a thin,clear, rigidplastic 'sleeve' into the ATM card slot . When you insert your card, the machine can't read the strip, so it keeps asking you to re-enter your PIN number . Meanwhile, someone behind you watches as you tap in your number . Eventually you give up, thinking the machine has swallowed your card and you walk away . The thieves then remove the plastic sleeve complete with card, and empty your account . The way to avoid this is to run your finger along the cardslot before you put your card in . The sleeve has a couple of tiny prongs that the thieves need to get the sleeve out of the slot, and you'll be able to feel them . The police would like as many people as possible to be aware of this scam, so pass this on to your friends . Now both the folks who forwarded this email are intelligent people . One was a journalist, who prefaced the email by saying that she normally doesn't forward such things but it came fom a "normally reliable source" (her email included the forwarder's email, a freelancer writer) . The original email contained many many ">" symbols, indicating it had been forwarded many times . It also contained 2 obvious giveaways that it was spam . 1] the line "The police would like as many people as possible to be aware of this scam, so pass this on to your friends . " Oh yes, the old "pass it on to as many people as possible" line . Can anyone see that and not have their spamometer start clanging? Apparently they can . 2] the fact that the NZ Police would never use casual email as a way to make a public service announcement . The first step I did was go to the NZ Police site . Sure enough, I could find no mention of this . The next step was Google, where putting in exact strings of the text soon brought several hits . I found several occurrences of it, all of them overseas without the vital "a friend in the Police in Auckland" which had obviously been added by someone locally . The oldest mention I could find was in a financial web forum about a month old . I also found the likely source of the email, this article at a South African Site: Old ATM scam resurfaces ( . iafrica . com/scamwatch/930170 . htm" target="_blank">mymoney . iafrica . com) Note, the article itself is undated - the date on the page is always today's date (something I didn't realise at the time, leading me to think the journalist had actually written a story based on the email, when in fact their story is the likely source of the email) . So there's no telling how old that story is or how long the email based on it has been floating around . But I note in the story the line: [b]"Claire Gerbhardt-Mann of the Banking Council, said the council had not had any reports from the banks regarding the scam"[b] so there appears to be no actual proof this ATM scam actually exists at all . Who knows, maybe the journalist actually did get the email and chose to write a story based on it!	Biggles (121)
72265	2002-08-20 00:01:00	My one and only source for cross checking these myths http://www.urbanlegends.com/	nzStan (440)
72266	2002-08-20 00:40:00	Oddly enough, nzStan, there were a couple of guys who used to sell perfume out of the boot of their car on Queen St a couple of years ago. They used to really annoy me as they would always seem to be surrounded by people at lunch time and made it difficult to get past.	antmannz (28)
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