She meant well. That's what Rose Lambert tells herself everymorning when her e-mail folder begins to bulge with missives fromaround the globe, and she starts to slip again into her deep, privatehell.
Six months ago, Lambert earnestly forwarded an e-mail to 100friends and colleagues, warning of a health risk posed by HIV-tainted needles allegedly affixed to the underside of gas pumphandles.
Horrified by the story -- which a colleague had sent her --Lambert wanted to put out the word.
Now she's sorry she did.
The report turns out to be a hoax -- one of those urban legendsthat scatter like buckshot across the Internet. But Lambert, chiefaide to Fairfax County Supervisor Gerald W. Hyland, didn't know that.And now her e-mail has spread faster than a head cold at a day-carecenter -- given added gravitas, perhaps, because her name andgovernment title were forwarded right along with the warning.
She's heard from people as far away as East Asia, wading throughas many as 30 e-mails a day and responding to each with an apologyand a retraction.
"It's been the bane of my existence, my worst nightmare," saidLambert, adding that she's even fielded calls at home. "You wouldn'tbelieve the response -- India. Australia. Washington State. They allwant to know, 'Is it true?' I can tell you, after this experience, ifthe sky is ever falling, no one will hear it from me."
That's mild comfort for Lambert's boss, a patient man who groans,only half-jokingly, about the "infamous" e-mail that has turned hislife upside down.
"I can't tell you how many calls I've received," said Hyland (D-Mount Vernon), whose name was listed in the e-mail as part ofLambert's job title. "I get them at my house. I get them at myoffice. I get them at the county board. . . . I wish I was kidding."
Lambert received the e-mail in December, a piece of scrap in thevast electronic junkyard that is the World Wide Web. Regrettably, shesays now, she removed the letter's forwarding markers andunintentionally put her name at the bottom, making it appear that shewas the author.
It took less than a day for Lambert to learn of her mistake: Acounty police officer on her e-mail list set her straight. Sheimmediately e-mailed a correction.
No good.
"I guess it was too late," she explains in a form letter she e-mails daily to curious correspondents. "Now six months later, this isstill circulating. Again, please accept my sincerest apology and donot forward this to anyone else."
But the inquiries keep coming. The fax machine churns. The phonerings so often that the receptionist screens Lambert's calls byasking, "Is this about the e-mail?"
Yesterday, there was a note from a woman in Southern Californiawho said she saw a similar report on the local news. Two more e-mails appeared in Lambert's in-box as she was being interviewed forthis article.
Why? Because the message -- which begins "SADLY, THIS IS NOT AJOKE!!!!!!!!!!" -- is still making the rounds. Yesterday, it made itsway into the electronic mailboxes of 30 employees of Inova HealthSystem.
With the exception of Lambert, no one would like the gas pumplegend to vanish more than the Jacksonville, Fla., sheriff'sdepartment, where the warning allegedly originated. The departmentwas deluged with inquiries -- about 1,200 last year after wordstarted to spread in June.
"It was no fun," Deputy Sheriff John Turner said yesterday,expressing relief that "you're only the second call we've had thisyear."
As for Lambert, she's basically over the embarrassment. Now shejust wants some peace.
"This is now the story of my life," she said, defeat in her tone."I can't wait until it's over. I may have to die first."
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