Emails Gone Wrong
By Rob
Have you ever sent an email without truly thinking it through, and then have that same email come back to bite you in the a**? Most countries allow a certain freedom of speech, where people may speak freely without censorship, however this doesn’t count for anything and everything. What’s more, with the evolution of the Internet and its archiving powers, the things you “say” via email are now recorded in the online realm.
After searching around for some good examples of this, we came across a GREAT example found on stuff.co.nz (a current-affairs type website here in New Zealand).
Picture this: A UK teenager of 17 years old has a few too many drinks, sat down to watch some tv, jumped on the computer to flick off an email, and was then banned from the USA.
When I read this article, I almost laughed out loud at the sillyness of it all. What happened was that Luke Angel (17) had a few drinks before sitting down to watch a program about the September 11 attacks of 2001. After being so incensed by what he saw, Luke decided to send an email to the White House in which he called President Obama “a prick”. According to the Daily Mail, the FBI intercepted the email and contacted UK police. The local Bedfordshire police then knocked on Luke’s door, informing him that he was now banned from the USA for life. Who would have thought that one silly email venting some anger could get you banned from a country!!
Unfortunately, this isn’t the only example of where email mistakes have had such a great effect on people’s lives. Whilst this was a personal email that had personal consequences, there have been many cases around the world where an email has had individuals fired, fined, found personally liable for company damage, the list goes on…
Keep an eye out for our next post on emails gone wrong, where we pick out a few of the more serious cases of email mistakes!
Related Posts:
17 Email Mistakes You Do Not Want to Make at Work
I Am a Junk Mail Junkie
Did Your Mum Teach You Those Netiquette Manners?