Last significant update: 18 December 1997
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On Wed, 3 Dec 1997 U-M staff member David Baum first brought this hoax to our attention. Thanks, David! Here, with permission and slight revisions, is part of his message and my reply:
> Hello, Virusbusters: > > I just received this extremely uncreative message. !! Agree there. > If I were a bettin' man, I'd bet this is a hoax, If we could take only bets like this, we'd be wealthy men! :-) > but thought you might want to check it out for sure. > Thanks. [lots of suckers^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hnaive folks' email addresses snipped; more comments below.] We haven't seen a copy of the original message, but the furthest back version we could trace had a Subject: field of "Must read!!! (Bill Gates!)" > >>>> > >>>>>Hello everybody, > >>>> > >>>>>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. Uh huh; yeah, right. Good grief! This nonsense has been forwarded to lots of other folks at least 11 times (count the number of ">"s above)! [Sigh] Greed is a strong motivator. > >>> > >>>>>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. What possible purpose? I guess Bill Gates might be one person who could afford to blow a million bucks, but come -ON-!! > >>>> > >>>>>Your friend, NOT. > >>>> > >>>>>Bill Gates Well, I can say for sure that I wouldn't want any of the M.D.s who forwarded this along getting anywhere near me to practice their profession. (I've been kind, and snipped out their email addresses.) -BPB
Please, folks, don't forward garbage like this to everyone!
Instead, you should reply to the sender -- and as far back up the email chain as you have energy -- informing the originators that this is a hoax. I suggest that you provide a pointer to this URL (http://www.umich.edu/~virus-busters/hoaxes/gates.html) or to another reputable site, like DataFellows (leaving our site).
-BPB
visits to this page since 18 December 1997 20:35 EST