I like e-mail. I use it everyday. But, like most regular e-mail users, I hate spam mail. Unfortunately, e-mail hoaxes and forwarded jokes have become a part of Internet life today. Whether it is a “starving, one-legged boy who needs your help” or “Bill Gates’ offer of $1,000 to recipients of the e-mail,” spam mail is here to stay.

That is fine by me – I have learned to live with it. Never though, has the sad state of spam mail been more obvious than after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Within days of the attacks, e-mail messages started circulating about various events or connections to the attacks.

Some have been harmless, such as the “light a candle tonight for a satellite photo” e-mail or a call for aid. Sadly, most hoaxes have sought to instill fear or have tugged on the heartstrings of their readers.

For example, one of the most recent hoaxes is the Halloween warning e-mail. According to the message’s sender, “a friend of a friend had an Afghan boyfriend whom left unexpectedly, but warned her of the Sept. 11 attacks and an impending Halloween attack in shopping malls.”

The message claims the information was sent to the FBI to help in its investigation and even included the originator’s name and phone number.

According to the popular Urban Legends Reference Pages Web site, www.snopes.com, the FBI has no knowledge of this being real and has received no evidence as the e-mail claims. Also, any attempts to contact the person claiming to have written the e-mail have failed.

The FBI has acknowledged getting hundreds of calls from concerned citizens about the message though, demonstrating the obvious effect this e-mail has instilled.

This is not the only case. For weeks, an e-mail got passed around about 30 Ryder, U-Haul and Verizon trucks that were rented or stolen by individuals of “Middle-Eastern” descent. According to the companies’ officials, all trucks are accounted for. Unfortunately, many people still kept watching over their shoulder every time a van or truck from these companies went by.

Numerous e-mails have also been localized by targeting specific towns. Each one names a vague source and town location and warns of impending attacks. Other messages have used false Nostradamus quotes or airline flight numbers to try and make other vague connections to the attacks.

Further hoaxes have been resurrected from the dead, such as the “Klingerman Virus,” warning you not to open letters from certain foundations, as they contain a disease or virus. This one was bad enough the first time around in 2000. The recent anthrax scare has only bolstered the false warnings and made people more paranoid than before.

But the saddest of all the hoaxes have been those preying on people’s emotions. Just when the wound of the WTC attacks had started healing, a photo of an “unlucky victim” came along and ripped it open again.

The photo showed the man atop the towers with the plane heading for them in the background. While obviously fake for numerous reasons, the photo still reintroduced the horrific reality of what had happened, just when people were learning to deal with it.

The outbreak of hoaxes have hit at a time America needs it least. So let’s all do our part to end it. If you receive a message proclaiming a “friend of a friend who knew a guy” did this or that, take some time to research it. While it could be true, the `delete’ key is most likely the way to go.

Chris Weishaar is a sophomore in construction engineering from Bronson.