Real or just another scam!?!

Knightfall

World of Kulan DM
My mother was sent this. I'm thinking it's a phony baloney junk e-mail trying really hard to convince people of its authenticity.

So, what can anyone tell me? Real or fake?

Subject: PLEEEEEASE READ!!!! It was on the news!This is worth a chance after the holidays!!! Have a good year. 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, whathave 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 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 mailto:Charles_Bailey@csx.com mailto: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???? >_________________________________________________________________
 

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Allanon

Explorer
It's a fake. There are many variations floating around of the same mail. It's a kind of low tech virus. By sending this mail and hoping that people respond to the adres given they flood that e-mail adres. And because virus scanners don't pick up on them they're quite effective. So please don't resend these mail and don't respond to those adresses,you're being used for somebodies else his dirty work.

Sherlock said:
It's as fake as a three dollar bill.
%243.
Darned lost the picture... so no resizing it...sorry ;)
 
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MerakSpielman

First Post
I'd wager all the phone numbers and other specifics are just plain false. Anybody feel like calling and seeing who answers?

General rules involving unsolicited email:

If it says it has a way for you to make money, it's always a scam.

If it tells you to forward the email to any number of people on your email list, it's always either a chain letter, a scam, or both. Chain letters are evil. Your email address is listed on it. Spammers get chain letters, too, with nice long lists of email address for them to spam. Always delete chain letters.

If it asks for bank account numbers, passwords, credit card number, or any other number that's not publically available, it's always a scam. This goes double if it's from anybody in Nigeria.
 

MerakSpielman

First Post
That image is huge, takes forever to load, and makes text wrap over off the screen to the right in an annoying way... It's a good pic, can you just shrink it a bit?

edit: thanks!
 
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KidCthulhu

First Post
MerakSpielman said:
General rules involving unsolicited email:

Your rules are good Merak. Mine are simpler. If it's sent by a member of my family, it's a scam. They mean well, bless them, but they really don't get it sometimes.
 

Pielorinho

Iron Fist of Pelor
Knightfall, I've taken to send people an email something like this:

"That email is a hoax. Before forwarding emails like that, it's always a good idea to head over to www.snopes.com and check to see whether the email is a scam or not. Otherwise, you're just helping the scammers out."

I'll send them the same email over and over until they take the hint.

Daniel
 



Knightfall

World of Kulan DM
KidCthulhu said:
Your rules are good Merak. Mine are simpler. If it's sent by a member of my family, it's a scam. They mean well, bless them, but they really don't get it sometimes.

You know, I've tried to convince my mother NOT to send me this stuff but she just doesn't get it. I tell her, it's a hoax, it's not real, and all she says is 'oh, you're just being a pessimist'.

And I'm like 'no, I asked around online. It's fake.'

And she's like 'oh sorry, I'll check next time.'

And then it starts all over again. Ugh. :(

I love her and all but sometimes I wish my mother had never bought her computer.

Later,

KF72
 


Pielorinho said:
Knightfall, I've taken to send people an email something like this:

"That email is a hoax. Before forwarding emails like that, it's always a good idea to head over to www.snopes.com and check to see whether the email is a scam or not. Otherwise, you're just helping the scammers out."

I'll send them the same email over and over until they take the hint.

Daniel

This is EXACTLY what I do too. Snopes is a great resource for proving to your acquaintances that they are hopelessly gullible :D

But I take it a step further - If they keep doing this to me, I "reply all" with the message the third time.
 

d20Dwarf

Explorer
Pielorinho said:
Knightfall, I've taken to send people an email something like this:

"That email is a hoax. Before forwarding emails like that, it's always a good idea to head over to www.snopes.com and check to see whether the email is a scam or not. Otherwise, you're just helping the scammers out."

I'll send them the same email over and over until they take the hint.

Daniel
I don't hint, it leaves room for interpretation. I usually say something resembling:

"I've told you time and again not to send me this bull:):):):)! It's not funny, it's not clever, and it's not true! Do not ever FORWARD me anything. Thanks.
 

jdavis

First Post
Yea this one is so old it was even covered on Mtv's Urban Legends show. You want a real good rule of thumb for this kind of stuff, "If it's a easy way to make money, it's a scam". Anybody who says you can get money for nothing is running some kind of scam, end of story. Another good thing to remember is "if it's in a e-mail it's most likey a scam" I've never seen any get rich offers yet that were real that came as spam or junk mail.

This one is listed at snopes.com, it's got a huge listing as it's been around for awhile. http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/nothing/billgate.asp
 
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AGGEMAM

First Post
Let's see. My rules on e-mails. If it's not an email address I recognize, and it doesn't say my name or any of my aka's in the subject line. It get's deleted immediately (or actually sent to the spamfilter which blocks the e-mail address forever). If I do recognize the e-mail but contains something like 'check this out', 'this is funny' or something like that it also takes the trip to the spamfilter, I don't give a crap whether it's family who sent it, they should know better.
 


Pielorinho

Iron Fist of Pelor
d20Dwarf said:
"I've told you time and again not to send me this bull:):):):)! It's not funny, it's not clever, and it's not true! Do not ever FORWARD me anything. Thanks.
Considering that the chief offender for me is the president of another nonprofit organization with whom we work very closely, this wouldn't be the most politic reply :).

He just sent me another one, asking, "Daniel, is this legit?" My reply this time was just two words:

Check snopes!
Daniel
 

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