Thursday, October 06, 2005

Hoax mails..give away phones, bill gates sharing his fortune !

Ah! another spam mail.. asking you to spread word of mouth and they are giving away cell phones free... Or bill gates is sharing his fortune..and you need to cc to some one.
I keep receiving such hoax mails and finally thought let write something on this topic.

Here is a sample mail.

Dear ALL ,
I just want you guys to take hold of this opportunity from Ericsson . Ericsson is distributing cell phones for free over the internet to compete with Nokia, which is doing the same. They want to be better known through the Internet by word of mouth and so they are giving away their new WAP phone.
All you need to do is mail this to 8 of your acquaintances. In two weeks you will receive an Ericsson T18. If you send this email to 20 people or more, you will receive an Ericsson R320 Wap Phone. Don't forget to mail a copy of this email to anna.swelund@ericsson.com to ensure that your participation is noted.


What do they get?
The company or the product gets benifited, surely word of mouth will spread their name to every corner of the world. But people wake up! You are just distributing the garbage..

How can you avoid spreading such mails
Thumb of rule! There is nothing called free lunch. Always strings are attached. So before expecting anything free think again. If you are in doubt, just search few keywords of that mail on any search engine, that will reveal the truth.
Checkout some similar mails collection at www.breakthechain.org

And finally if you still want to try your luck sending these mails.. here is a good list of such letters in circulation. http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org
:p Hehe just kidding..

Do continue to send/forward mails to your friends that are worth their time and attention. Happy mailing ;)

7 comments:

sanjaykattimani said...

Here is another popular variant of Microsoft giving out money...
-----------------------
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 292-1085 Charles_Bailey@csx.com

Anonymous said...

Another Interesting Post sanjay !
What do they'll get by circulating Hoax mails ?

It would be for,
Increasing the network traffic and bytes consumption or slow down the network usuage etc.
ISP's used to charge for per MB download and uploads. This type of mails are planned and circulated by private service providers & network careers around the globe. we all aware about Thirupathi miracle mails...I mean, sent to 5 people for immediate fortune etc. Not only Billgates...all our Indian Gods and Idols are under this forwardings now to visit their inboxs to bless them with fortunes ;)

Mahesh~

sanjaykattimani said...

Another chain mail with a very unpleasant pic.
-------------------------------------
: If you don't forward this...you don't have a heart!

Dear All,


Alexandra came out of a rigging fire alive,
but now has to fight for her life and a normal future. She is 14 months old and she has burnt skin all over her body, damage facial bones (as a result of very high temperature).
She does not have half of her face.
She is in hospital in Cracow - Poland and one of the best specialist is looking after her.
However she still has to go through many surgeries and then long rehab.
Unfortunately her parents do not have any more money.
Therefore we are asking for your help.
For each forwarded email her parents will get 3 cents. Please help them and forward this email to as many people as you can.

sanjaykattimani said...

Another mail floating in Orkut...I will forward too.. if yahoo really does pays.. But how is yahoo tracking this mail?? No way.. !
----------------------------------
plzz pass it on..its cost u nothing..... indian student in USA met with an accident last week..the car was driven by a drunk american boy...he has no one in US..his parents cant afford to go there and help him out..hovewer the university he studied in has decided to pay half the cost but the other half has to be paid by someone..the INDIAN STUDENTS ASSOCIATION has decided that it wil pay 10cents every time this message is passed on...YAHOO has agreed to this and the message has already passed a lot...this is the time to show that u r a true indian..please be generous and send this to all the people

sanjaykattimani said...

Cammy forwarded a that gave a break to these regularly forwarded mails...
------------------------------
want to thank all my friends and other unknown people who have
forwarded chain letters to me in 2003, 2004 & 2005 and 2006.
Because of your kindness:
I stopped drinking Coca-Cola after I found out that it's good only for
removing toilet stains.
I stopped going to the movies for fear of sitting on a needle infected
with AIDS
I smell like a wet dog since I stopped using deodorants because they
cause cancer.
I also stopped answering the phone for fear that they may ask me to
dial a stupid number and then I get a phone bill from hell with calls
to
Uganda ,
Singapore and Tokyo.

I also stopped drinking water outside for fear that I will get sick
from the rat shit and urine.

When I go to parties, I don't look at any girl, no matter how hot she
is, for fear that she will take me to a hotel, drug me, then take my
kidneys and leave me taking a nap in a bathtub full of ice.
I also donated all my savings to the Amy Bruce account. A sick girl
that was about to die in the hospital about 7,000 times. (Poor girl!
she's
been
7 since 1993...)
My free Nokia phone never arrived and neither did the free passes for a
paid vacation to Disneyland.
Made some Hundred wishes before forwarding those Dalai Lama, Ganesh
Vandana, Tirupathi Balaji pics etc..
Now most of those "Wishes" are already married (to someone else)!
You can add your own notes based on your similar experience and send
them to your friends.
If ORKUT deletes my account, it doesn't matter BUT PLEASE DON'T SEND me
"Orkut is deleting accounts: Due to sudden rush..." Otherwise I'll
delete my E-Mail account!
IMPORTANT NOTE: If you do not send this e-mail to at least 913760
people in the next 10 seconds, a bird will shit on your head today at
10:30
a.m.
Give me a break!!
This was forwaded to me. Nice one and You should send this to as much
people you can.

sanjaykattimani said...

Another mail suggesting that we should not re-use plastic bottles.

How to avoid:
Check on the bottom of the bottle there is a triangle sign and there will be a number on it.

If the number is higher than or equal to 5 --> then this bottle is safe to use.

Whatever number under 5 will release the chemical. For most bottle water, the number is 1.

Did you know chemical released by plastic water bottles can cause cancer (It is not the water that affecting you but the chemical releasing from the bottle)

sanjaykattimani said...

Hi All,



Ericsson is distributing free laptops for their brand promotion.
They hope to increase their popularity and sale by this campaign.
All you need to do is send an email about this promotion to 8 people and you will receive an Ericsson T18 Laptop.
However, if you send an email to 20 or more people, you will receive an Ericsson R320 Laptop.

Make sure you send a copy to: anna.swelung@ericsson.com