Got a strange email today saying that Bill Gates is doing beta testing and will pay you for sending on and email to all your fiends coz he is going to track it for 2 weeks??scam/junk?? any way I don't use outook express for my email. Below is a copy of it (deleted).
It's a hoax. I typed "for every person you send this email to" into Google, and the top 3 hits were pointers to sites that say it's a hoax. For example:
From the Urban Legends website:
Comments: This is a hoax, and a recycled one at that. Bill Gates isn't sharing his fortune via chain letter. No merger between Microsoft and AOL has been announced; indeed, it's hard to imagine an unlikelier event. Two of Microsoft's biggest rivals, America Online and Netscape, merged in 1998, making AOL Microsoft's main competitor. Trust us, if these two behemoths were to merge, you'd have seen it in the headlines a thousand times over.
Moreover, Microsoft cannot track the chain letters you forward, nor will Bill Gates pay you for replicating this insipid message. Why on earth would he?
Statement from Microsoft:
REDMOND, Wash., May 12, 1999 - Recently an email has been circulating on the Internet about a new "email tracking system" from Microsoft.
As you may have suspected, this is a hoax and did not originate from Microsoft.
Microsoft does try to investigate the source of these hoaxes and take appropriate action. However, many times the hoaxers take elaborate steps to shield their true identities and we cannot identify them. Privacy and security are very important to us here at Microsoft, and we work every day to build great software for the Internet that keeps information safe, secure and private.
We regret any inconvenience this may have caused you.
— Message to Customers on "Email Tracking Program" Hoax
Statement from Bill Gates:
Even more annoying than spam, in some respects, are hoaxes. I'm acutely aware of this because my name was recently attached to a hoax email message that was widely distributed.
People embellished the fraudulent email over time, as it was forwarded from electronic mailbox to electronic mailbox, but an early version read this way:
"My name is Bill Gates. I have just written up an e-mail tracing program that traces everyone to whom this message is forwarded to. I am experimenting with this and I need your help. Forward this to everyone you know and if it reaches 1000 people everyone on the list will receive $1000 at my expense. Enjoy. Your friend, Bill Gates."
The bogus message was widely forwarded, which surely led to some disappointment from people who hoped to receive $1,000 for passing along what was essentially a chain letter.
— On Spam: Wasting Time on the Internet
Bottom line, please tell your friend it's a hoax. Suggest that before sending it next time, that they Google the text of the message and see if it pops up on the hoax sites.
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