Why not add a two-step software capability to existing SPAM and e-mail filters that will help eradicate Urban Legend e-mails...

Program in a frequently-updated ability to recognize urban legends and scams that gullible friends and colleagues forward to everyone in their address book -- you know, messages like the one saying Microsoft will pay you thousands of dollars for forwarding this e-mail to lots of people as part of an Internet Explorer beta test -- and it was on Good Morning, America so it must be true... Or the one about needing to register your cell phone on the Do Not Call list or telemarketers will begin calling you like crazy... (Check Snopes.com if you want to see more such rumors and urban legends.)

But in addition to blocking this "innocently-sent" SPAM from ever reaching your in-box, the software would also send an auto-reply message to the sender, saying their message has been blocked and pointing them to a page debunking their message. So, the software is not only reducing the number of messages you receive, it's also helping educate your friend or colleague about not falling for messages like this in the future...

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