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Iphtashu Fitz writes "We've all seen it. The e-mail forwarded to us from a friend who got it from a coworker whose sister's cousin's roommate's great aunt knows somebody at Microsoft. The one from Bill Gates himself offering you cash to forward the e-mail to others in order to test out their new e-mail tracking system. If you haven't received that one you've undoubtedly gotten other e-mail hoaxes offering anything from gift certificates to free computers to free airline tickets. How do these sorts of hoaxes start and who starts them? Well Jonathon Keats at Wired Magazine decided to track down the origin of the Bill Gates e-mail tracking hoax. After a few dead ends he finally located then-student Bryan Mack, who created the hoax on November 18, 1997 while at the University of Houston. In Mack's own words: 'It was just a joke between a couple friends' that eventually got out of hand. One of his buddies had gotten a make-money-fast spam and Mack said 'I can come up with something better than that.' Three minutes later, Bill Gates' email-tracing program was born. At first he just sent it to a few friends, but those friends sent it to other friends (and so on), and it didn't take long for the e-mail to transform from a joke to a full-fledged hoax."
Why do I even subscribe to Wired anymore, I can get the whole magazine in 2 weeks worth of articles on Slashdot, with full discussions...
Oh wait I know why, the pretty colors of the magazine!!!
I finally know the name of the man I've wanted to kill for the past 7 years.
"Jon Katz isn't very sneaky. What an obvious pseudonym!"
"Also, the author of that Wired article is an idiot."
(-1, Redundant)
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This post is not associated in anyway with Slashdot. It is merely a poor representation of sarcasm, or irony, or a metaphor about how a beatiful woman is like a fine piece of jade... or something... You won't actually get a subscription to Slashdot and I might lose mine.
--
Was it the sheep climbing onto the altar, or the cattle lowing to be slain,
or the Son of God hanging dead and bloodied on a cross that told me this was a world condemned, but loved and bought with blood.
Not to mention that being on a Mac does not disqualify him from recieving the reward money for forwarding his messages. Bill told me so in his last email.
Hrrm... I usually just sign my name.
E-mail scams! Wait till my friend from Nigeria hears about this!
This site has been both Slashdotted and Farked. I think we need to go inform the IT people at Wired that we offer them our condolences on the loss of their servers. Then again, they probably already know all about the problems, what with that burning smell...
Maybe they could sell the blackened chunks of silicon that used to be their servers on eBay, make back some of the loss.
There is no mod option "-1: Disagree" for a reason. "Overrated" is not an acceptable substitute. Post something instead.
I hate those hoax warnings, but this one is important! Send this
> > warning to everyone on your e-mail list!
> >
> > If someone comes to your front door saying they are conducting a survey
> > and asks you to take your clothes off, do not do it! This is a scam;
> > they only want to see you naked.
> >
> > I wish I'd gotten this yesterday. I feel so stupid and cheap now....
really, I mean jdbmgr.exe anyone? Look for the bear!!!
:)
And who would be stupid enough to believe a software company would make executables launch from within the email, or for that matter the header? What kind of buffoon software would ever do that...???
A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing. Emo Philips
Actually I really need my whomping shovel. Thing is, security seems to get upset when I bring that to work I don't understand why I'm just trying to help people improve themselves. I only use a whomping shovel because some people need more help than others and I can't get my hands on an ICBM or a NIKE missle.
When they can r00t my QVT-102 terminal, I'll be impressed! (Especially since it's in the box in the basement right now.)
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
Now I'm sitting in the Nigera with my friends from several banking institutions wondering how we can get the money out of the country. Perhaps we could have your help?
--pete
"History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme." Mark Twain
Only now at the end, young Hoaxer, do you fully comprehend the POWER of the dark-side/Internet.
I sent it to the president & CEO of IBM (where I was working at the time), and my VP and a whole lot of other executives and co-workers. I was only fortunate that the guy that had the authority to fire me was on vacation at the time. oh. the stupidity
Oddly enough, it's Microsoft
www.facebook.com/DareDefendOurRights
www.fairtax.org
WASHINGTON, D.C.--The Institute for the Investigation of Irregular Internet Phenomena announced today that many Internet users are becoming infected by a new virus that causes them to believe without question every groundless story, legend, and dire warning that shows up in their inbox or on their browser. The Gullibility Virus, as it is called, apparently makes people believe and forward copies of silly hoaxes relating to cookie recipes, email viruses, taxes on modems, and get-rich-quick schemes.
"These are not just readers of tabloids or people who buy lottery tickets based on fortune cookie numbers," a spokesman said. "Most are otherwise normal people, who would laugh at the same stories if told to them by a stranger on a street corner." However, once these same people become infected with the Gullibility Virus, they believe anything they read on the Internet.
"My immunity to tall tales and bizarre claims is all gone," reported one weeping victim. "I believe every warning message and sick child story my friends forward to me, even though most of the messages are anonymous."
Another victim, now in remission, added, "When I first heard about Good Times, I just accepted it without question. After all, there were dozens of other recipients on the mail header, so I thought the virus must be true." It was a long time, the victim said, before she could stand up at a Hoaxees Anonymous meeting and state, "My name is Jane, and I've been hoaxed." Now, however, she is spreading the word. "Challenge and check whatever you read," she says.
Internet users are urged to examine themselves for symptoms of the virus, which include the following:
the willingness to believe improbable stories without thinking the urge to forward multiple copies of such stories to others a lack of desire to take three minutes to check to see if a story is true T. C. is an example of someone recently infected. He told one reporter, "I read on the Net that the major ingredient in almost all shampoos makes your hair fall out, so I've stopped using shampoo." When told about the Gullibility Virus, T. C. said he would stop reading email, so that he would not become infected. Anyone with symptoms like these is urged to seek help immediately. Experts recommend that at the first feelings of gullibility, Internet users rush to their favorite search engine and look up the item tempting them to thoughtless credence. Most hoaxes, legends, and tall tales have been widely discussed and exposed by the Internet community.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. The story is a dupe, the topic is boring, the facts weren't checked. WE GET IT!!
Some genius was inventing indentation by use of the > symbol. Little did he know that we'd all be surfing greater-than "waves" for the next millenium and a half.
>
> >
> > >
> > > >
> > > > >surf's up!
> > > >
> > >
> >
>
stuff |
I got the Bill Gates email from a friend around Thanksgiving of 1997. We made fun of my him for sending it around, but he reasoned "it's probably not true, but it's worth the 2 seconds to send it in case it is."
So when I got back to school after Thanksgiving break I forged the headers in my email to write a message "from" Bill Gates to my friend. The message thanked him for participating in the study and gave him instructions for collecting his $1000. All he had to do was send a self addressed stamped envelope to Microsoft with a letter containing his name and a confirmation number.
Over a year passed by and I never brought it up to my friend. I think it was around Christmas of '98 when we were all home again from college and hanging out when someone brought up the Bill Gates email hoax.
My friend said, "Did I ever tell you guys what happened with that? I got an email saying I won the money, so I followed the instructions and sent back a self addressed stamped envelope, but Microsoft just sent the envelope back to me. I guess it wasn't real, but it was worth the 37 cents just in case it was real."
I finally told him what happened after I laughed for about ten minutes.
OddManIn: A Game of guns and game theory.
Im not sure Bill Gates was as widely known back then... So I think your memory has gotten /.'ed!
It's too bad that more hoax "victims" don't get this one...
> Greetings, You have just received the "IRISH VIRUS".
> As we don't have any programming experience, this Virus
> works on the honour system. Please delete all the files
> on your hard drive manually and forward this Virus to
> everyone on your mailing list. Thank you for your cooperation.
Confidence is the feeling you have before you understand the situation.
What is Bryan's email address?
"It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance." - Thomas Sowell
To the moderator who mods me up as insightful...
This account has been seized by the GNAA. That is all.
The old one used to be shiny and new too, you know. I swear, you people just can't be trusted with anything nice!
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
If you're a writer for a technical magazine, shouldn't you at least have the intelligence to spot a scam/hoax email like that within about two seconds?
I've seen worse. I met a guy that was head of some kind of security division at Symantec. It was previously a standalone company that was acquired by Symantec.
Anyway, he told me that he had to get someone in his office from his staff to verify an email that came from "Admin" telling him to open some kind of spam malware.
But hey, he drives a Porsche...
where to I sign!!!?
(or to whom to I email my SSN and credit card number?)
Send $5 to the 5 names on this list, then put your name at the top, remove that last entry, and send it to 5 of your friends.
I forgot where I read that (maybe even here), but here goes anyway:
Imagine that combined with penis enlargment spam. Cut your penis into 5 parts, send each part to top 5 names on the list.. receive more penis in the mail! Guaranteed to add inches and inches to your penis!
Google's new email offering, gmail, is what everyone's talking about! And people are confused about Google's "tracking" of the messages you send and putting ads on it.
So a letter that explains that Google's testing a new email system (true!) and that they're using their search technology to track emails would be beleived by enough people to make a new round of this chain letter spread even faster than it ever had!
C'mon /. folks! Here's a challenge! Write a letter and sent it to a dozen of your most gullible friends!
Best Buy can have you arrested
Everyone who mods the parent of this article isightful will get $25!
In addition, everyone who metamoderates the moderators will get $50!
Please help the folks at /. refine their technology by participating in this important test.
I don't have that file. I got an email that told me to delete it, so I did. So far so .~ ^.8 . ++++[carrier lost]
Where do I get one of these modems that writes [carrier lost] into web forum posts before it disconnects? It seems like everyone has one but me... or maybe it's done at the ISP level!?.
Dewey, you fool! Your decimal system has played right into my hands!
Excuse me, I'm an engineer with QUME, can you plug your terminal in to a phone line for a sec? We've had some reports of leaky capacitors detabilizing the electron gun on your CRT that could cause sterility, it's something we can fix and patch remotely.
What's your number again?
"Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus."
Especially since it's in the box in the basement right now
Come on. We all know "security through obscurity" doesn't work.
Hey freaks: now you're ju
Back when I worked at a computer repair shop, our front counter girl got that hoax e-mail about the bear file. What did she do? Deleted the file off of every display system we had for sale.
The boss chewed her a new one.
Please send this to everyone in your address book, NOW.
If a man (or woman) comes to your front door and says he (or she) is conducting a survey and asks you to show them your ass, DO NOT do this.
This is a SCAM!!!!!!!! He (or she) just wants to see your ass.
I wish I'd gotten this yesterday.