Petition against stoning AND tech query on spam/scam likelihood.

From: Brett Paatsch (bpaatsch@bigpond.net.au)
Date: Wed Aug 13 2003 - 20:50:38 MDT

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    Hi all,

    I received the following request to sign a petition aimed at
    preventing the stoning of a Nigerian woman for adultery.
    Apparently a similar petition has been successful before.

    I have signed it but I am not going to forward it as it
    requests to people in my address book because I
    don't know that to do so would not be exposing them to
    an email spamming scam.

    Here's the quandry.

    (1) This seems like a very worth while petition to sign if
    something so easy to do can have such a positive outcome
    and the technique could be used elesewhere.

    But.

    (2) Can someone with the tech knowledge please advise
    on the safety of forwarding it? It asks for an email address
    at the point of signing. Possibly that is the real danger point
    where people would be exposing themselves to spammers
    when trying to do something humane.

    Its annoying, but it seems to me that it would be easy for
    scammers (who'd be spammers) to use just such a tool.

    Brett Paatsch

    -----

    >Hearing on AMINA LAWAL SET TO BE STONED ON
    > - 27 AUGUST 2003
    > The Nigerian Supreme Court has upheld the death
    >sentence for Amina Lawal, condemned for the crime of
    >adultery on August 19th 2002, to be buried up to her
    >neck and stoned to death. Her death was postponed so
    >that she could continue to nurse her baby. Hearing on
    >her Execution is now set for 27 AUGUST 2003.
    >If you haven't been following this case, you might
    >like to know that Amina's baby is regarded as the
    >'evidence' of her adultery.
    >Amina's case is being handled by the Spanish branch of
    >Amnesty International, which is attempting to put
    >together enough signatures to make the Nigerian
    >government rescind the death sentence. A similar
    >campaign saved another Nigerian woman, Safiya,
    >condemned in similar circumstances. By March 4th the
    >petition had amassed over 2,600,000 signatures. It
    >will only take you a few seconds to sign Amnesty's
    >online petition. Please sign the petition now, then
    >copy this message into a new email and send it to
    >everyone in your address book.
    >Go to the web page
    > http://www.amnesty.org.au/e-card/petition.asp
    >Thanks for reading this. Please take the time to
    >sign the petition...
    --------------------

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