✕HoaxEnglish

BillGatesfortune

Fact-check by SophosPublished 1 min read

The original site is no longer online; links go to the Internet Archive copy.

What the fact-checkers found

This chain letter has been spread across the internet. Of course, it is not true and Microsoft and AOL are not participating.

The text of the chain letter is as follows:

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 weeks, Microsoft will contact you for your address and then send you a cheque.

Original source: sophos.comNo longer online, so this opens the Internet Archive copy.Open the archived copy
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