Is This Forward about AOL Giving Out Money a Scam?

Factual Questions
1

WE HAVE NOTHING TO LOOSE RIGHT!! -

>

>

>

> > > Subject: FW: FW: Fw: PLEEEEEASE READ!!! It was on the news!

> > >

> > >

> > > >>

> > > >>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

> > > >>General Manager Field Operations

> > > >>1-800-842-2332 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 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 $4,54323 by

> > > >>forwarding this e-mail.

> > > >>

> > > >>Try it; what have you got to lose???

> > > >><![endif]>

i would go ahead and try it anyways, but i don’t want to look like an idiot.

2

It is most definitely bullshit - whether it actually qualifies as a true scam (i.e. whether someone somewhere fbenefits financially from it) is doubtful.

I know of no exception to the rule that says “When requested, DO NOT forward messages to everyone you know”

3

Plus there’s this, of course.

Forwarding these messages (or unfortunately, als being part of a list of recipients where one of the others forwards it on) makes your email address more likely to fall into the hands of spammers - my advice would be to complain bitterly to the sender.

4

You answered your own query. Nothing personal. :smiley:

BTW, next time you post one of these emails, please take the time and edit out the extra line feeds and extraneaous characters.

5

If you have to ask yourself, “Is this a scam,” it probably is.

6

These email pass-alongs usually refer to some supposed authority. In this case it’s an attorney for some reason. All you have to do is Google the name of the authority and you get page after page of hits telling you it’s a hoax.

7

This is just another in a long line of pyramid or ponzi schemes.

At best it’s an annoying chain letter, but since it involves money, it’s much worse. Any letter that says something to the effect of “forward this to all your friends” is a scam or a hoax.

There are plenty of sites out there that debunk these. They should be bookmarked on your computer for future reference.

8

Whenever in doubt, check out Hoaxinfo or as previously mentioned by Mangetout , Snopes .

Great link Chefguy …I’ve added that to my arsenal as well.

9

Jeebus. I know this ain’t the pit, but how f*cking stupid ARE you, anyway?

10

Heh. I dissected this very e-mail (in a humorous way! Not like stockton ;)) when a junior office manager sent it round. She got mad at me anyways… man! I hope she isn’t still angry!

Man. Make me worry again. But really, does this honestly score even in the single digits on your possibly-could-be-true meter?

11

sigh Once again, kiddies:

THEY ARE ALL SCAMS

12

stockton, keep it out of GQ or risk losing your posting privileges.

-xash
General Questions Moderator

13

I’m not addressing gypsymoth here, but everyone (incl ,e). Ask yourself:

  1. Is it likely that microsoft would pay $200 to people for forwarding an email.
  2. Could they afford that? If it was true everyone would forward it 100s of times.
  3. What would they gain?
  4. Can microsoft really track all email you send (well, ok, probably, but if you use windows but non-microsoft email client, modem, ISP, socket software, etc. is it possible)?
  5. If microsoft was giving away potentially billions of dollars, wouldn’t it be on the news?
  6. Do you really trust people more because their sisters are “really honestly attorneys”?
  7. Wouldn’t it be mentioned on the microsoft web site? (I didn’t check. If it is I’ll eat humble pie and apologise.)

Sorry if I’m running this into the ground but my point is that to me it really isn’t plausible. It’s possible, but it’s not the one forward I’d pick out of the 20 other junk ones and believe.

The trick is, next forward, to ask yourself these questions. Occasionally we’re wrong, but I think it’s better to start from “what plausible story might this be a distortion of” than “money? where? gimme!” :slight_smile:

14

Yes, but it proliferates because, although people think it probably is fake, they feel that there is nothing to lose from trying.

15

What bugs the living daylights out of me is how people mindlessly forward this crap simply because it says to do so.
As if that isn’t bad enough, they will leave 15 pages of previous headers in their FWD beacuse they are too ignorant to know how to edit a FWD Email. For a time I used to send Emails to all the people that had FWD the thing and ask them to try and THINK before do so in the future. I think I actually received one Email back. It was actually a pretty decent reply. I gave up trying to “save the world” and don’t bother any more. I must admit the number of the junk FWDs I get now is almost zero, so maybe a few people have actually learned something.

I wouldn’t mind nearly as much if these FWDs didn’t scare the elderly and other cranially challenged folks. Fact is they do and that makes me mad.

End of rant! :mad:

16

Of course it’s true, I know this for a fact and you can trust me cos I say I’m very honest. Companies also have wads of money to pay me for filling out opinion surveys. And I was given a free car just by having advertising on its side and lots of free electrical equipment that they just gave me. People also daily send me envelopes stuffed with cash as part of my money spinning pyramid.

I am now ludicrously rich beyond my dreams and it’s all because of the wonderful things you can do on the internet. I really don’t understand why more people don’t do it.

After that maybe Microsoft and AOL could give the government this amazing email tracking program they have and they could use it to catch terrorists and everyone the world over would be very rich and very happy!

17

I’m tempted to start a forward saying “think for yourself.” Think people would believe it?

18

Google says its a hoax

Gee, it only took me 9 seconds to surf to google and type in that name.
What gets ME is that the mindless it couldn’t hurt thinking is wrong. It does hurt. It bogs down mail servers everywhere, causing bandwith to go down for this worthelss junk mail. Okay, so it’s not a scam per se, but it’s boggus.

It goes along with what this says very sarcastically. (Warning, 1 pop under) The other page it links to is the original one that I found back in the day that I still used ICQ. Lies, Damn Lies, and ICQ messages. (same warning)

I mean, come on! at least clean up the email before you forward it.

19

Yep. And it needlessly wastes time and contributes to aggravation.

I think if they could think for themselves, we wouldn’t be dealing with this.

20

Arrgh! Goofed my quote – the second one was from Shade.