Should we participate in missing person emails?

No

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by Joseph Whalen

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As well intentioned as it may seem to participate in distributing a missing person's email, we are far more likely to do more harm than good. Email is arguably the biggest medium from which to spread malicious code in the form of virus's, Trojan horses and other malware over the internet. While some of the missing persons email chains may be legitimate, the chances are far greater that someone with ill intent is utilizing this popular form of communication to spread their own mischief.

There is already a number of other more secure and more appropriate methods for disseminating information on missing persons that are better suited for the task than email. Many email providers today have very advanced heuristics associated with their spam filters which will block anything that appears to be a mass distribution of information, labeling it as unsolicited bulk email. As a result a sizeable selection of such emails never makes it through to the intended recipient. They instead have a negative side effect that could result in the sender being blocked from many other internet service provider mailing lists and labeled as a spammer.

Under the right circumstances email is an excellent and reliable form of communication. It is not intended for mass distribution of information or notifications, as is required for distributing documentation on missing person's cases. As a result the information is not distributed correctly or as expected, with a reciprocal threat of retaliation against the innocent person originating such a message. It's a no win situation for most of the people involved. Your message fails to reach its intended audience and you can face stiff penalties for abusing the email system of your provider.

In addition to the questionable reliability of emails under these circumstances is consideration of third party entities that are looking to exploit such a system in the first place. Malicious hackers and other organizations that are looking to either hijack such email distributions or are inspired to generate their own such threads, all in the effort to advance their own nefarious schemes. These schemes can be as mild as distributing an annoying but otherwise harmless virus, or they can be as dangerous as advancing their efforts at identity theft.

The Internet is a much more dangerous place today than it was ten years ago. There are far more opportunities to exploit unsuspecting users who would otherwise assume the information being passed to them is legitimate. Instead of receiving an email about a lost child they are in fact opening an attachment that allows remote access to their system to an outside source, or some other type of security exploit. This type of social engineering is not limited to email, it is just that email offers readily accessible target of the large and mostly unaware audience.

Voluntary participation and redistribution of such email threads only enables the vandals that prey on innocent internet users. Providing such an inviting vehicle as a plea for help, such email threads tug at the heart strings of most people who are legitimately interested in helping people in such circumstances. While opting out of participation may negatively affect some of the legitimate efforts, it will also help to encourage such legitimate causes to seek an alternative method for distributing their information. Which ultimately will help not only their efforts in finding whoever is missing, but also help the average internet user maintain more secure habits while online.

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