[amitoj]

Here is one i got today:

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 week! s, 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 292-108

The most fun part about getting such emails is scrolling down the list of people who actually fell for this and seeing how many companies have so desperate people working for them!

"Sheesh" is the first word that comes to my mind when i get such emails.

Cheers
Amitoj

[deepakhon]

How'bout Tirupati Venkatesha kind of mails? "Send them to as many people as possible and you will see that something good will happen to you" will be the standard stuff written at the end of the mail.

[vivekiny2k]

I for one may believe tirupati venkatesha mails. They alrerady have high tech systems, website, online puja etc. may as well start a chain mailing service too ;-)

(just for laughs, no offence meant).

[RX135]

I used to reply to any person who forwarded me such chain letters, and used to discourage him strongly sending again. It worked many times, but now a days either my spam mail filter takes care of it or it passes through, I delete it promptly without reading.

[deepakhon]

I also remember some mail which used to get circulated a long time ago saying that someone had developed an Operating System which loaded some x% faster than windows or linux or something else and was faster by some y%. It also said that HCL Tech had hired that guy or bought that OS or whatever. I had joined HCL Tech at that time and was very proud when I saw that mail for the first time . Only then I realised that someone was fooling around. I very recently also got that mail and I just laughed to my heart's content.

[artofzen]

But the best chain mail was :-

If you forward this mail to 10 people,you wont get anything!!!!!! ...and guess what it is true,even i didnt get anything

[GTO - Touring]

I cant disclose who this was, but a friend used a similar one to Amitojs opening post as a marketing tool for his then unknown company.

Well - It worked!!! He was looking at atleast 50 new leads (calls) per day, a month after the email idea was devised.

GTO

[Hackett]

Mails with tag line.. " if you do not forward ... so and so will happen to you, or misfortune will fall on you... types" generally invokes responses, as many (subconciously) do not wish to challenge this.

What ever is the reason, chain mails are a menence most of the time and comes as part and parcel of mail administrators headache.

[adya33]

fightback against chain letters

http://www.breakthechain.org/

[muni]

There are those sweet mails which talk about friendship and love and expect you to forward to your loved ones...to show how much you love them and blah blah blah.

Isnt that romantic...these mails though they are Ok in content makes you delete them just because its part of that contagious chain.


In our country, i think the God idea for chain mails works wonders and there wudnt be many who would be willing to challenge that.
I simply hate the cheap idea.


Also i remembered, those patriotic chain mails which say that this country or this person is better and asks you to forward to all country men and blah blah blah.

There are many more varieties too..who cares when u always have that shift+delete button.


Hurry Home

[PAVAN KADAM]

I got this mail on Rediff.

Very strange request. Can anyone decipher this mail.


MR.MUSA HASSAN NIGERIA NATIONAL PETROLEUM CORPORATION FALAMO OFFICE COMPLEX, IKOYI, P.M.B. 12701, LAGOS. PHONE: 234-805-3505-758, EMAIL: musapcng11@yahoo.fr Assalamalaikum, PERMISSION TO REMIT US $21 MILLION INTO YOUR COMPANY OR PRIVATE ACCOUNT. It is my pleasure to write and inform you of a transaction involving the transfer of US $21,000,000.00 (twenty one million US dollars) only into a foreign account for safekeeping pending my arrival with my colleagues for the sharing with you as the account owner into which the money is remitted. I am an accountant with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Lagos and this money originated from over-invoiced contract executed for the corporation some years back. This contract has long been completed by a foreign firm and the contractor duly paid. I now seek if you would permit the surplus to be remitted into your account. As a matter of fact, we are top government officials and we cannot come out openly to claim this amount. This is why we are looking for a competent and honest company or individual abroad whose documents would be tendered by us here in Nigeria as one of the contractors that executed the project. However, I would wish to receive your personal assurance that you would not sit on the money when it goes into your account. More importantly, you keep confidential this transaction, in order not to tarnish the confidence repose in the officials involved in this transaction. To effect this transfer, I therefore request the following: YOUR ACCOUNT NUMBER, THE NAME OF YOUR BANK WHERE THE MONEY WOULD BE TRANSFERRED INTO AND ALSO YOUR PRIVATE FAX AND TELEPHONE NUMBERS FOR QUICK COMMUNICATION. So far, after due consultations, you were strongly and reliably recommended to us although we have not met or entered into any kind of contract with you before as to know the extent of your honesty, but based on the recommendation, I personally want to believe that you are honest enough and would not sit on the money if finally got into your account. It is on this note that I consider it proper to write you asking for your permission and support to transfer this amount into your account. You should not fear any risk because I have concluded arrangement to safe guard you in the transaction. This business is 100% risk free. Hence it requires high level of confidence and secrecy. Meanwhile this is the breakdown of the sharing modalities: (A). 10% WILL BE USED TO SETTLE TRANSFER CHARGES AND LEGAL PROTOCOLS. (B). 30% IS FOR USING YOUR ACCOUNT. (C). 60% OF IT WILL BE FOR US THE ORIGINATORS. Be informed that on completion of this business I will use part of my money to invest in your country under your care. Please note that the transfer operation will take seven to ten working days to be completed. Please contact me by the above Email Address musapcng11@yahoo.fr THANKS MR.MUSA HASSAN

P.S: Not sure weather this thread belongs here, if inappropriate pls move it MOD's

[greenhorn]

haven't you seen a nigerian spam mail before ?
Advance-fee fraud - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[sammyboy]

oh i get mails like this every week from some or the other source.
Ignore it, had this been true I would have been posting pics in the supercar section and writing travelogues of exotic locations

[hemanthisgreat]

These are the usual fraud mails sent across to obtain bank details. Just spam it and don't give much thought to it.

[benbsb29]

Pavan, dont even bother reading. All spam mails, and these do not call for a thread to discuss upon it . I regularly get such kinda mails, and the simplest action one has to perform is to click the 'Delete' button.