Only a few of the
"to good to be true" sorts of messages are shown here.
Other similar messages are just as bogus. Targeted companies have
been Old Navy, Victoria's Secret, and Nike to name a few. None are
true. I'm sure these have been a source of much laughter for those who
designed them. Perhaps it really makes their day thinking of the
thousands of people wasting their time on this and the way it will clog up
email systems. Then again, perhaps they need to get a life.
Here are the some of the most popular hoaxes in this category.
Remember that any message that promises something (money, certificates,
screen pop-ups) for forwarding, is a complete hoax.
It does not matter what
company the email says will give you gift certificates or money for
forwarding. Below are some of the most popular hoaxes, but here is a
short list of other hoaxes:
The Gap; Nokia; Ericsson; Delta; Outback; Nike; Old
Navy; IBM, Etc.
There is another bad side
to this as well. When real companies are named, these things become
major headaches for them. They must put disclaimers on their sites
and answer phone calls about the hoax. Microsoft, Intel, AOL, Nike,
Coca Cola, Victoria's Secret, Old Navy and more would like to see this
stuff go away, because they've all been targets. So, this all ends up
hurting someone and wasting their time. It has become a "false
witness."
Bill Gates Is Sharing His
Fortune (NOT!). Gates, Microsoft and AOL (??) Will Send You Money For
Forwards - FAKE, FALSE, HOAX!!
NOTE:
DO NOT WRITE ME ASKING TO GET IN TOUCH WITH BILL GATES! READ
EVERYTHING ON THIS PAGE! BILL GATES IS THE CEO OF A
MULTI-BILLION DOLLAR COMPANY, HE ISN'T GIVING AWAY MONEY IN THIS
MANNER AND I
COULDN'T GET IN TOUCH WITH HIM IF I WANTED TO. GENUINE
CHARITIES CAN GET IN TOUCH WITH THE GATES FOUNDATION TO APPLY
FOR CONTRIBUTIONS.
Even if email forward
tracking existed, this message would be as full of holes as swiss cheese.
Before we take the message
apart piece by piece, let's examine whether this kind of email tracking is
possible or not. The fact is that the kind of tracking scheme
promoted here is not possible. The internet is not a single hub
computer, but hundreds of servers set all over the world. Let's say
you have AOL as your ISP. You send an email to ten people, none of
whom are AOL subscribers. Ten emails leave your server and travel to
let's say 6 other servers around the globe. Now, AOL can track that.
However, three of your recipients decide to send the message on to 10
others each. Those three are not using the AOL server, but three
other servers. While AOL could track your message, it cannot track
what these other three people did, and so on and so on.
You will never help any sick or dying child by doing
so. You will never get any gift certificates or money for forwards.
Nothing cute will ever pop up on your computer no matter how many forwards
you do. All you are ever doing is wasting your time and the time of
others with useless, phony messages.
One more thing to look at
before taking the message apart is how much money are we really talking
about here? Remember that in the
message you are to get $245.00 dollars for each person you forward to and
another $243.00 for each person THEY forward it to (as well as the $245.00
they will get for the forward). Suppose that you sent it on to only 5
people, and those 5 to 5 each, and so on. In just the course of probably
one hour, Bill Gates would have to shell out $1,225 just on your 1st
generation, not to mention the thousands of other people who will do the
same thing. Next, you receive $6,075 for the second generation (5 X 5 -
$243.00 for everyone that gets it in the 2nd generation). The third
generation will net you $30,125 (25 X 5 X $241.00). In one day, you would
have $37,425. Now, in one day, imagine that each one of these people get
the same thing. There are now 25 people involved from just your forward =
$935,625, almost 1 Million dollars. Next, put hundreds of people into one
day of forwarding. Let's be cautious and say that just 100 people get it
and forward it in one day = $3,012,500 (that is the 100 forward it to 5
each and they to 5 each). That's only about 3 million dollars. Now,
take that times the four years the message has been out. As you can see,
even Bill Gates doesn't have enough money to fund this for even one week.
The figures
above were just what I figured out. A mathematician by the name of Simon
Nance wrote me with these figures on just how much it would cost to carry
out this scheme:
If the message propagates at an
exponential rate (lets use a power of 6, since that is a good general base
for new population growth in most real-world systems) the number of origin
messages needing to be tracked after 6 power iterations (that is 1 person
sends to 6 people, each sends to 6 more, etc. over six intervals =
6*(6^2)*(6^3)*(6^4)*(6^5)) is 470,184,984,576 messages. Lets say a
day of emailing is slow so that you can only get six iterations per day,
that means that since the original message was forwarded to me on Nov 25th
at 11:40PM (which wasn't even a message from Intel/AOL) about 4 days have
past. This means that AOL/Intel is tracking 24 iterations of email
messages sent which equals 6^(24!) or 6^620,448,401,733,239,000,000,000
(i.e. 6 times itself 620 zetaillion - times) messages. But the
original message text says that "Pearlas Sanborn's brother's
girlfriend got into this a few months ago." Let's assume a few
months is three months - Sept, Oct, Nov - 89 Days. That's 6^(89!) or
six to the power of 165,079,551,609,085 times 10 to the 122 power
messages. Lets just calculate the cost to AOL/Intel to pay $203.15 for
each of these messages, shall we? That's $1,218.90 to the power of
(201,215,465,456,314,000 times 10 to the 122 power) - more money than has
ever been printed by the US Mint. I don't think we need to calculate the
$156.29 and $17.65 for 2nd and 3rd respective message recipients to know
this is a total B.S. Forward, but let's do it for fun: the 2nd recipient
removes one iteration from the total series, leaving us with 6^(88!) times
$156.29 and third recipients cost Intel/AOL $17.65 times 6^(87!).
The grand total since September would be close to $226 Billion times 3.5
googol (a googol being a 1 with 100 zeros behind it).
Now, it has
hopefully been proven that the premise of the message is an absolute
impossibility. Let's look at the ridiculous statements in the rest
of it.
(1)
No attorney is ignorant of the fact that a class action lawsuit is a group
of people suing a company. PepsiCo cannot file a class action lawsuit
against General Electric. By the way, this Perlas Sanborne must be a
friend to thousands of people. Her name is the one thing that hasn't
changed on this message in four years!
(2) AOL and Intel have made no promises to anyone about anything. In
fact, where does Intel come into this? They are not mentioned again until
the end of the hoax message. The only reason their name is on here is
that the original version of the message had AOL and Intel merging. Some
versions still contain this. They are not merging. Intel is not an
internet company. They make computer processors. What would be
their interest in this scheme?
(3)
AOL is the internet rival to Microsoft. They own Netscape, the rival to
MS's Internet Explorer. They have absolutely no interest in ensuring that
IE remains "the most widely used program." They wish it were just the
opposite. IE squashed Netscape totally. AOL is rival to Microsoft's
MSN network. Does anyone in their right mind really believe that AOL
is going to cooperate to make Microsoft look good on anything?
(4)
Notice that the girl who supposedly received a check showed it to her
friend (the one supposedly writing the message). Why didn't she cash it?
I would! That's a lot of money to be hanging on to. Why would she cart a
check that big around? Also, she could not have seen "paid in full"
stamped on it. There wouldn't be any stamps on the check until she cashed
it, then she would never see it again. I've never seen a check that was
pre-stamped "paid in full." Who would bother and why?
(5) "What have you got to lose?" says the
end of the message. Mostly, you'll simply gain a reputation as guilable
among your friends and family and irritate the rest for wasting their time
with junk mail.
(6) Some versions say something to
the effect that we're not going to help them with their beta test for
nothing. Of course, there is no software beta testing going on here,
but one should think about that statement. Really? When was the
last time you were paid to beta test software? Beta tests of software
are your choice. Most of the time, its the computer geeks who test out
the software for bugs before the public gets it. You have to be
willing to volunteer. They don't need you, so if you demand payment
for helping they'll just tell you to take a hike.
The upshot is that there isn't a single sentence in this
message that makes any sense. There is
another bad side to it as well. When real companies are named,
these things become major headaches for them. They must put
disclaimers on their sites and answer phone calls about the hoax.
Microsoft, Intel, AOL, Nike, Coca Cola, Victoria's Secret, Old Navy and
more would like to see this stuff go away, because they've all been
targets. So, this all ends up hurting someone and wasting their
time. It has become a "false witness."
Here are other articles on
this hoax:
Snopes
Break-The-Chain
Truth or
Fiction
Urban Legends
ORIGINAL MESSAGE VERSION 1:
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 weeks, Microsoft will contact you for your address and
then send you a cheque.
Regards.
Chinu! 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.
Second Incarnation:
Subject: Fw: PLEASE READ!!!!!! it
was on the news!
OK....let's see if this is for real...... It would be nice!
To all of my friends, I do not
usually forward messages, but this is from my good friend
Pearlas Sanborn and she really is an attorney. If she says
that this will work - it WILL work. After all, what have you
got to lose?
SORRY EVERYBODY.....JUST HAD TO
TAKE THE CHANCE!!! I'm an attorney, and I know the law. This
thing is for real. Rest assured AOL and Intel will
follow through with their promises for fear of facing a
multimillion dollar class action suit similar to the one
filed by PepsiCo against General Electric not too long ago.
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 weeks, Microsoft will contact you for
your address and then send you a cheque.
Regards.
Charles S. Bailey
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
real.
Intel 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, Intel 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 $156.29. And 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 $4,543.23 by forwarding this
e-mail.
Try it, what have you got to
lose??? |
Cracker Barrel Gift Certificate Hoax
As any of you who tried
this already know, it's a complete hoax. To save you time whenever
you get these kind of messages, it's helpful to know that no message
claiming you will receive something from forwarding email is true.
The fact is that the kind of
tracking scheme promoted here is not possible. The internet is not a
single hub computer, but hundreds of servers set all over the world.
Let's say you have AOL as your ISP. You send an email to ten people,
none of whom are AOL subscribers. Ten emails leave your server and
travel to let's say 6 other servers around the globe. Now, AOL can
track that. However, three of your recipients decide to send the
message on to 10 others each. Those three are not using the AOL
server, but three other servers. While AOL could track your message,
it cannot track what these other three people did, and so on and so on.
You will never help any sick or dying child by doing
so. You will never get any gift certificates or money for forwards.
Nothing cute will ever pop up on your computer no matter how many forwards
you do. All you are ever doing is wasting your time and the time of
others with useless, phony messages.
The immature people who make
these things up are laughing.
Now, let's examine the
message itself. Is a man named Junior Johnson really the founder of
Cracker Barrel? Cracker Barrel was founded in the late 1969 by Dan
Evins and Tommy Lowe. The original store is in Lebanon, TN.
There is no Junior Johnson. He is the figment of an immature mind.
ARTICLES:
Snopes
Truth or
Fiction Break
The Chain Cracker
Barrel
There is
another bad side to it as well. When real companies are named,
these things become major headaches for them. They must put
disclaimers on their sites and answer phone calls about the hoax.
Microsoft, Intel, AOL, Nike, Coca Cola, Victoria's Secret, Old Navy and
more would like to see this stuff go away, because they've all been
targets. So, this all ends up hurting someone and wasting their
time. It has become a "false witness."
Original Message
Subject: Fw: Gift Certificate from
CrackerBarrel
Date: Friday, October 13, 2000 12:07 PM
My name is Junior Johnson, founder of Cracker Barrel. In an
attempt to get our name out to more people in the rural
communities where we are not currently located, we are offering a
$50 gift certificate to anyone who forwards this email to 9 of
their friends. Just send this email to them and you will
receive an email back with a confirmation number to claim your
gift certificate.
Sincerely
Junior Johnson
Founder of Cracker Barrel
Hey guys, DONT DELETE THIS EMAIL It
really works, I tried it and got my Gift certificate confirmation
number in 3 minutes. |
Applebee's Gift Certificate Hoax
The email message says
that if you forward the email, you'll get certificates from Applebee's.
The text is almost exactly the same as the Cracker Barrel hoax - only the
names are changed. For all the information on why this is a hoax,
see the article on the Cracker
Barrel hoax.
Applebee's
has also debunked
this hoax on their website. When you go to their site, a pop-up window
will come up about this hoax. Of course, if you have a pop-up stopper like
I do, you won't be able to see it.
The fact is that the kind of
tracking scheme promoted here is not possible. The internet is not a
single hub computer, but hundreds of servers set all over the world.
Let's say you have AOL as your ISP. You send an email to ten people,
none of whom are AOL subscribers. Ten emails leave your server and
travel to let's say 6 other servers around the globe. Now, AOL can
track that. However, three of your recipients decide to send the
message on to 10 others each. Those three are not using the AOL
server, but three other servers. While AOL could track your message,
it cannot track what these other three people did, and so on and so on.
You will never help any sick or dying child by doing
so. You will never get any gift certificates or money for forwards.
Nothing cute will ever pop up on your computer no matter how many forwards
you do. All you are ever doing is wasting your time and the time of
others with useless, phony messages.
The immature people who make
these things up are laughing.
Well, at least the hoaxster
DID get the name of the founder right. None of the other similar
hoaxes manage that. Applebee's was founded by Bill & T.J. Palmer in
Atlanta, GA in 1980.
ARTICLES:
Snopes
Break The
Chain
Truth or
Fiction
Urban
Legends
Original Message
Subject: Gift Certificate
from Applebees
My name is Bill Palmer, founder of Applebees. In an attempt
to get our name out to more people in the rural communities where
we are not currently located, we are offering a $50 gift
certificate to anyone who forwards this email to 9 of their
friends. Just send this email to them and you will receive an
email back with a confirmation number to claim your gift
certificate.
Sincerely
Bill Palmer
Founder of Applebees
Visit us at:
www.applebees.com
Hey guys, DON'T DELETE THIS EMAIL It really works, I tried it and
got my Gift
certificate confirmation number in 3 minutes. |
Victoria's Secret Gift
Certificates Hoax
As any of you who tried
this already know, it's a complete hoax. To save you time whenever
you get these kind of messages, it's helpful to know that no message
claiming you will receive something from forwarding email is true.
The fact is that the kind of
tracking scheme promoted here is not possible. The internet is not a
single hub computer, but hundreds of servers set all over the world.
Let's say you have AOL as your ISP. You send an email to ten people,
none of whom are AOL subscribers. Ten emails leave your server and
travel to let's say 6 other servers around the globe. Now, AOL can
track that. However, three of your recipients decide to send the
message on to 10 others each. Those three are not using the AOL
server, but three other servers. While AOL could track your message,
it cannot track what these other three people did, and so on and so on.
You will never help any sick or dying child by doing
so. You will never get any gift certificates or money for forwards.
Nothing cute will ever pop up on your computer no matter how many forwards
you do. All you are ever doing is wasting your time and the time of
others with useless, phony messages.
The immature people who make
these things up are laughing.
Is someone named Victoria
Johnson REALLY the founder of Victoria's Secret? No. Be prepared for a
surprise. It was founded in 1977 by a man
named Rory Raymond, and sold to The Limited in 1982. There is no Victoria
and never has been. The message is just about an exact duplicate of a
similar hoax messages involving Cracker Barrel and Applebee's. Also
notice that the Cracker Barrel hoax is signed by a Junior JOHNSON.
Nobody bothered to even change the last name for this one.
Articles:
Victoria's
Secret Statement about this hoax
Snopes
Urban
Legends & Folklore
Original Message
Ladies, don't delete this. Please
read. It's a free gift certificate from Victoria's Secret.
Victoria Secret Gift Certificate
My name is Victoria Johnson,
founder of Victoria's Secret. In an attempt to get our name out to
more people in the rural communities where we are not currently
located we are offering a $50 gift certificate to anyone who
forwards this email to 9 of their friends. Just send this email to
them and you will receive an email back with a confirmation number
to claim your gift certificate.
Sincerely,
Victoria Johnson
Founder of Victoria's Secret
Hey guys, DON'T DELETE THIS EMAIL
It really works, I tried it and got my Gift certificate
confirmation number in 3 minutes. |
Pinky: What are
we going to to tonight Brain?
Brain: The same
thing we do every night, Pinky - try to take over the world! Tonight
we're going to use a forwarded email message that is too good to be true!
We'll tell them that Bill Gates is giving away $100 for every message they
forward! While the whole world is forwarding the message and tying
up the internet, we'll be able to take over the world!
Pinky: NARF!
Ha ha ha!
