One of my friends recently sent a chain mail to a group of her closest girlfriends. I never would have read it if it weren't for the following: 1) I trust her, and 2) she never sends these things. And, because of these two reasons I believed what I read (did I just admit that?).
If I'm ever held up at an ATM machine and my assailant demands money, said the chain mail, all I have to do is insert my card and enter my pin number backwards. My new safety pin will send shockwaves through the system and alert the police who will save me in true hollywood fashion. Pretty smooth, right?
"Myself I have never heard of it, so I had to verify with all of co-workers, and back office. Nobody knows anything about it, and my back office confirmed that they are not aware of such a security measure. Hope this helps." (Real email from my banker.)
A brief search on Google reveals that the secret safety pin is pure legend. But, I wonder how many of my girlfriends will even bother to do a quick search (zero). The thing is, when you get an email from a trusted friend who rarely sends chain mails you don't think twice about what it says, unless it's obviously fake. You just believe. And that can be the problem with the web.
I'm not trying to defend myself or my friend, but there is actually some truth to this safety pin. Apparently, an entrepreneur named Zingher created the patent for the reverse pin and tried to sell the idea to banks, but they never caught on. And why not? Well, as a friend told me, imagine that your safety pin was exactly the same backwards...
If I'm ever held up at an ATM machine and my assailant demands money, said the chain mail, all I have to do is insert my card and enter my pin number backwards. My new safety pin will send shockwaves through the system and alert the police who will save me in true hollywood fashion. Pretty smooth, right?
Yesterday at the ATM I played pretend hold-up (with myself, that is) to see how quickly I could think of my pin number backwards. I kept messing up the number. There's no way this can be real, I thought, so I sent an email to my trusted banker at HSBC.
"Myself I have never heard of it, so I had to verify with all of co-workers, and back office. Nobody knows anything about it, and my back office confirmed that they are not aware of such a security measure. Hope this helps." (Real email from my banker.)
A brief search on Google reveals that the secret safety pin is pure legend. But, I wonder how many of my girlfriends will even bother to do a quick search (zero). The thing is, when you get an email from a trusted friend who rarely sends chain mails you don't think twice about what it says, unless it's obviously fake. You just believe. And that can be the problem with the web.
I'm not trying to defend myself or my friend, but there is actually some truth to this safety pin. Apparently, an entrepreneur named Zingher created the patent for the reverse pin and tried to sell the idea to banks, but they never caught on. And why not? Well, as a friend told me, imagine that your safety pin was exactly the same backwards...
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I always equate people who forward these chain things as newbies to the internet or emailing. It goes against any sort of proper email etiquette.
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