mykokology 0 Report post Posted November 11, 2005 Today I got an email from a friend that says I will earn money if I forward it to others. Here is the exact message: Dear Friends, Please do not take this for a junk letter. Bill Gates is sharing his fortune. If you ignore this you will repent later. Microsoft and AOL are now the largest Internet companies and in an effort to make sure that Internet Explorer remains the most widely used program, Microsoft and AOL are running an e-mail beta test. When you forward this e-mail to friends, Microsoft can and will track it (if you are a Microsoft Windows user) for a two week time period.For every person that you forward this e-mail to, Microsoft will pay you $245.00, for every person that you sent it to that forwards it on, Microsoft will pay you $243.00 and for every third person that receives it, you will be paid $241.00. Within two week! s, Microsoft will contact you for your address and then send you a cheque. Regards.Charles S. BaileyGeneral Manager Field Operations1-800-842-2332 Ext. 1085 or 904-245-1085 or RNX 292-1085 Charles_Bailey@csx.com I thought this was a scam myself, but two weeks after receiving this e-mail and forwarding it on, Microsoft contacted me for my address and within days, I received a cheque for US$24, 800.00. You need to respond before the beta testing is over. If anyone can afford this Bill Gates is the man. It's all marketing expense to him. Please forward this to as many people as possible.You are bound to get at least US$10, 000.00.We're not going to help them out with their e-mail beta test without getting a little something for our time. My brother's girlfriend got in on this a few months ago. When I went to visit him for the Baylor/UT game. She showed me her check. It was for the sum of $4,324.44 and was stamped "Paid In Full".Like I said before, I know the law, and this is for realIntel and AOL are now discussing a merger which would make them the largest Internet company and in an effort make sure that AOL remains the most widely used program, Intel and AOL are running an e-mail beta test. When you forward this e-mail to friends, I! ntel can and will track it (if you are a Microsoft Windows user) for a two week time period.For every person that you forward this e-mail to, Microsoft will pay you $203.15. For every person that you sent it to that forwards it on, Microsoft will pay you $156.29And for every third person that receives it, you will be paid $17.65.Within two weeks, Intel will contact you for your address and then send you a check. I thought this was a scam myself, but a friend of my good friend's Aunt Patricia, who works at Intel, actually got a check of $4,54323 by forwarding this e-mail.Try it; what have you got to lose???? Suresh , Windows XP Support - Research Team What do you think? Is this for real? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Florisjuh 0 Report post Posted November 11, 2005 Looks like an all-round hoax... There are much better ways to advertise then to give out heaps of money for people forwarding messages, Microsoft already has hotmail which counts for about 15 (If not much more) percent of the mail world anyway. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
knowlege pool 0 Report post Posted November 11, 2005 Hi there,I don't think this was even a right place to display this topic. It will only help the cause of the spammers. This is what they want to spread and block the bandwidth.Do you think that talent pool all across the globe had dried up for microsoft to start a spam like this. Money is earned and not looted like this. You start a conversation with GOD , MONEY Or SEX and you become a talking attention.This is what spammers use to their advantage. They send a mail taking about making fortune by few clicks and there will be hoards of people following it. They fail to understand that even bill Gates has earned each of his penny . Every one wants to be as rich as him but no-one wants to work tenth as hard he has.Knowlege Pool Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
calkid 0 Report post Posted November 17, 2005 Today I got an email from a friend that says I will earn money if I forward it to others. Here is the exact message: What do you think? Is this for real? 203708[/snapback] what do i have to lose??? well if i believed in that letter i just saw, i would have everything to lose. that same letter was used 10 years ago. it's a chain letter. the only difference between this one and a typical chain letter is that you aren't going to have bad luck, and you aren't going to make any money. it was though. a successfull attempt to see how gullible people were. i think when i first saw this letter, microsoft stock was at $1..... now THAT is something i regret not buying! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
calkid 0 Report post Posted November 17, 2005 They fail to understand that even bill Gates has earned each of his penny . Every one wants to be as rich as him but no-one wants to work tenth as hard he has. Â Knowlege Pool 203826[/snapback] Â Â bill gates never earned each of his pennies. he had volunteer hackers to do most of his work and then paid them off handsomely after taking all the credit. now that he has money, he buys up all his competition and reaps the rewards...excuse me....MICROSFT does this. billy hides behind the corporation so he's not the one losing millions. the stock holders are. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
heavensounds 0 Report post Posted November 17, 2005 Weel I think this is a bunch of crap, because if you think a little bit....everything today goes in a way of preventing others to see any information that has something to do with you...now tell me how is microsoft about to find out TO WHO THEY SHOULD SELL MONEY?? This is why it is impossible...you could make 10000 email adresses and forward this from on to the other and earn millions of dollars...People just hink before you do something with mail or anything else on the computer!greetz Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sharpz 0 Report post Posted November 17, 2005 do you honestly believe this rediculous email? i could easily fake the exact same thing and send it to you, and apparently you would believe it. You might want to verify things in the future before you fall pray to marketing scams (*cough* netbux *cough* ) if no one has heard of netbux, it was a giant scam that 'payed you' for searching, but ended up not paying up and the owner of the site fled. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
knowlege pool 0 Report post Posted November 17, 2005 bill gates never earned each of his pennies. he had volunteer hackers to do most of his work and then paid them off handsomely after taking all the credit. now that he has money, he buys up all his competition and reaps the rewards...excuse me....MICROSFT does this. billy hides behind the corporation so he's not the one losing millions. the stock holders are. 205759[/snapback] my dear friend  I would like to clarify few things  1)when you say you earned every penny doen't mean that you have earned it yourself literaly. It meands that you have worked out , plan get it executed by your staff, workers and stakeholders.  2)now coming your point about hackers . I don't understand your logic behind saying so. You can't call any one hacker just if someone paying them to work for him. A team works and captain get the credit as he gets the team moving.  3) And last, aquasitions and mergers are the part of business game plan. Buying competition is not bad (someone in the first point is selling it) for making your company large and the biggest in its field.  all this was taking us away from the topic of free online money. Again it seems you have build in a certain mental block about microsoft. Without even acertaing that thjis mail is a hoax or real you have jumed to a comclusion saying he is not loosing any thing the stockholders are.  I think you skipped that Bill Gates himself own all his fortune bythe virtue of being one of the biggest stakeholder(shareholder) in the company. So any think which goes against shareholders in general goes against him also. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Spectre 0 Report post Posted November 17, 2005 *Sigh. Thanks to gullible people, vast numbers of networks have been shut down due to the forwarding hoax emails causing traffic to block up. No offense intended - it's in our nature to be optimistic, and wanting to believe what people say comes with that. Falling for 'pranks', 'hoaxes', etc. happens to the best of us. Â But there is no way this is going to happen. Neither Microsoft nor AOL (or joint efforts) can track every email on the Internet. Whilst in theory, AOL would be able to track emails sent through their servers (and knowing their privacy practices - or rather, the lack there of - they may well), it is not possible for anyone one company to track every email floating around the Internet. If - and only if - one single body had an undisputed monopoly on mail servers with literally no other competition, then it might be possible. But as email passes through any given number of servers to reach its destination, it's impossible to track it unless it passes through a server operated by the tracker. Â I would advise that you simply delete any emails that urge you to forward them on to others. If they are genuine, then they don't need to try and convince you to send them to other people. There are millions of 'chain' letters floating around - both in electronic and physical form - and they are usually started by someone who has little else to do and would like to see how far their hoax can spread. Any message following the line of 'Forward this to all your friends / x amount of people / everyone and something good will happen to you' are almost definately rubbish, and should be ignored. Helping them propagate is just helping the idiot who started it. Â And now, onto the logic. Just pretend that part of the email was true, and Microsoft and AOL had teamed up to pay you money just because they have it (and, let's face it, they are known for their generosity and tendancies to throw all their money at people). Microsoft is obviously nothing short of an empire, and the Time/Warner/AOL group follows pretty closely. Being such enourmous and wealthy corporations, don't you think they would have ways of publicizing their events other than sending unsolicited email to random people, promising them that riches will follow if they help 'spread the word'? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mama_soap 0 Report post Posted November 17, 2005 Well, looks like Spectre has covered everything that there is to it. A good rule of thumb (apart from checking if the mail asks you to forward it to x people or else... <something nasty> will happen to you) is simply that if any mail begins with the sentence Please do not take this for a junk letter., it is almost certainly bound to be a junk letter. I wouldn't even bother to read any further  In most circumstances, common sense should help in seeing your way through the scams. May the anti-spam engines be with you Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mayank 2 Report post Posted November 17, 2005 my dear friend  I would like to clarify few things  1)when you say you earned every penny doen't mean that you have earned it yourself literaly. It meands that you have worked out , plan get it executed by your staff, workers and stakeholders.  2)now coming your point about hackers . I don't understand your logic behind saying so. You can't call any one hacker just if someone paying them to work for him. A team works and captain get the credit as he gets the team moving.  3) And last, aquasitions and mergers are the part of business game plan. Buying competition is not bad (someone in the first point is selling it) for making your company large and the biggest in its field.  all this was taking us away from the topic of free online money. Again it seems you have build in a certain mental block about microsoft. Without even acertaing that thjis mail is a hoax or real you have jumed to a comclusion saying he is not loosing any thing the stockholders are.  I think you skipped that Bill Gates himself own all his fortune bythe virtue of being one of the biggest stakeholder(shareholder) in the company. So any think which goes against shareholders in general goes against him also. 205788[/snapback] Ha ha ha...it seems to me that "calkid" got a good lecture on business...I am sure after reading this he'll become one good Manager. And as far as this giving of money is considered...as everyone else has said that this is hoax and it is absolutely junk...I got this mail myself and guess what....It stored this in my spam and have reported it as spam because..google will do it to other emails as well...if anyone else gets it please report that as spam due to which lot of people will be saved...as spectre explained that how bandwidth is wasted becasue of all these junk emails.  I think people must be intelligent enough to understand what is right and what is wrong and what is a junk email and which is genuine...ask a simple question from yourself....that if you were as rich as Bill Gates..will you be giving away money like this to others...SIMPLE HUH? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
calkid 0 Report post Posted November 17, 2005 my dear friend  I would like to clarify few things  1)when you say you earned every penny doen't mean that you have earned it yourself literaly. It meands that you have worked out , plan get it executed by your staff, workers and stakeholders.  2)now coming your point about hackers . I don't understand your logic behind saying so. You can't call any one hacker just if someone paying them to work for him. A team works and captain get the credit as he gets the team moving.  3) And last, aquasitions and mergers are the part of business game plan. Buying competition is not bad (someone in the first point is selling it) for making your company large and the biggest in its field.  all this was taking us away from the topic of free online money. Again it seems you have build in a certain mental block about microsoft. Without even acertaing that thjis mail is a hoax or real you have jumed to a comclusion saying he is not loosing any thing the stockholders are.  I think you skipped that Bill Gates himself own all his fortune bythe virtue of being one of the biggest stakeholder(shareholder) in the company. So any think which goes against shareholders in general goes against him also. 205788[/snapback] if someone is going to make a form posting on what i saw 10 years ago, i will make light of it which is exactly what i did. i use microsoft products and can't argue with the business techniques of microsoft....in fact i am using xp right now i understood what you meant on points 1 and 3, but if you don't understand what i meant by hackers and who built microsoft(it wasn't bill gates) then you don't know much about the history of microsoft. my point was valid while making light of a post. bill gates is a billionaire. he can afford to take risks and get sued. microsoft is FAR from an unconservative co. to invest in and is in no way a threat to going out of business but the stock CAN drop SEVERAL points from his unethical business practices which are illegal here in the united state which can literally force a person to sell their shares(which in fact causes stock to drop even more where others are forced to sell) to save as much as i can without having to risk it dropping even more. since microsoft is considered a conservitive stock, people don't like to see it fluctuate that much. now what don't you understand about that and the fact that bill gates is a criminal who has been found guilty in the court of law, who has been fined and ordered to change his business practices? what does this have to do with making money? absolutely nothing. it was inresponse to your post which had nothing to do with the topic. MY first reply was in regards to a making money SCAM which was ON TOPIC. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
calkid 0 Report post Posted November 17, 2005 (edited) Ha ha ha...it seems to me that "calkid" got a good lecture on business...I am sure after reading this he'll become one good Manager. a good lecture in business? i majored in it. my father was a stock broker for 45 years so i know the histories of certain businesss when i've done my research before i invested in them. i've also had a successfull online business WITHOUT a website for over two years now. i put my money where my mouth is and don't talk about things i don't have knowledge about. currently, while billy says he's not afraid of google being competition, i will bet money he is paying millions to watch googles every move(which would also be illegal but hard to prove) but is also why martha stewert went to jail...another criminal(collecting information that you are not allowed to use to make money off of... while collecting information is NOT illegal why materials like the anarchist cookbook was never banned reading etc...). gates has always been after for himself, not his stockholders. although he makes a couple decent products, i am hoping google steps out and diversifies into more offline stuff(os's and programing) to comepte further with microsoft which is the only company right now that can come close in doing so without the threat of being bought out by microsoft. before i graduated from high school, i recomended to my father to buy in to microsoft. this was 20 years ago when microsoft was a nothing company and just starting to hit the papers. my father never took my advice and i had no money to invest unfortunately.as far as hackers being relevant, it's relevant when he hired mainly criminals like he turned out to be....people who were in to hacking in to computer systems or cracking copywrited software. most of the people he hired were his friends or people he knew. these criminals ended up to be millionaires, never to be caught or prosecuted for their past illegal activities. now these so called "nerds" and "hackers" can get any materialistic woman they want...long past the days when they were leaving their computer on over night, running their hacker programs to generat 10-20 calling card #'s(when they were only 5-6 digits back then) or cracking popular software programs only to make a name forthemselves with their sig page.....you know those people. the gates hired these criminals just like the united states government did. it was good business by both, but the popularity of both would greatly decrease if it was openly knowledgable that they that these two instituations hired FELONS. now- to drag in the original topic of these posting, i can say that the only money microsoft will be giving away is to non profit charitable institutions for tax write offs. not for the benefit for the people but the company itself.....or giving away quarterly dividends to encourage more people to buy their stock in hopes it will rise even more to be considered an even more conservitive stock to support their future illegal activities and court costs while still trying to fool their stock holders in to believing that companies like google are no competition.-aaron Notice from mayank: corrected the BB codes Edited November 17, 2005 by mayank (see edit history) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
awangga 0 Report post Posted November 18, 2005 Today I got an email from a friend that says I will earn money if I forward it to others. Here is the exact message: What do you think? Is this for real? 203708[/snapback] i dont think so guys Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
research2012 0 Report post Posted December 7, 2005 I got almost the same email about 6 years ago and it was different in only a few ways, at the time I knew tons of people with email addresses and I emailed it to about 40 people and follow up on at liest 20 and never was one of us contacted let alone made rich. I am willing to bet it is created by some middle school student who needs to be doing thier homework instead and stop clogging up and ultimately slowing things down for the rest of us (thats what we got dial up for).Though from what I hear AOL and IE need to spread the word cause they are loosing customers to competitors (not sure why, I use Firefox and Earthlink). Share this post Link to post Share on other sites