The "Bill Gates Millions" email hoax is one of the classic chain emails. It's so well known, and so widely debunked that there's no sense reproducing it here. Despite its age people still seem stupid or desperate enough to fall for it though, and so it continues to drag its frail and withered carcass over the SMTP highways it now knows so well. Of course compared with the bulk of modern spam, it actually makes relatively pleasant reading, being composed of sentences, and without one mention of intimate members, swollen or otherwise.

But spam it is, and like all spam it should be treated with the absolute contempt it deserves, and since it is actually forwarded by people, you can do something about it. You can send them a polite email explaining that the internet is rife with abuse and nonsense which, owing to its sheer volume, impairs everybody's online experience. Forwarding drivel like this without prior thought or attention is at best negligent, such as accidental littering. And considering how easy it is to determine the fraudulence of the email in question, forwarding it on, especially with your own little addendum of "I don't normally go for things like this, but this one looks genuine, and what's to lose?" ...well that's equivalent to industrial fly-tipping. A politely worded email, suggesting the best response to a suspect email is well worth the time taken to write it.

On the other hand, it's more fun to reply to everyone on the To: list with something like this:


BBC WARNING!!!
 
OMGWTF BBC NEWS 24 WEBSITE ARE SAYING BIRD FLU MERGED WITH HUMAN FORM
OF MAD COW DISEASE TURNED INTO HUMAN MAD BIRD DISORDER. SYMPTOMS ARE A COUGH
OR RUNN Y NOSE, N ITCHY ARM. IF YOU HAVE ITCHY ARM AND WHAT YOU THINK IS A COLD
YOU HAVE IT!"!!
 
THE BBC REPORT SAYS THE TIMES SAYS SCIENTISTS SAY THAT THE HUMAN
MAD BIRD DISORDER (HMBD) HAS A "CUMULATIVE AFFECT" KILLING BRAINCELLS - IT
MAKES YOU DUMB! FROM THE ARTICLE: "HMBD In humans is shown in lab experiments to
bind to neuroreceptors in the brain causing chronic damage to the
Meso-Occipital Retrograde Oncological Neurone cluster, which indirectly 
regulates the neurotransmitter Phenoxyretano-6-triol (Pr6t). High levels of 
Pr6t can lead to permanent feelings of dizziness, severe reduction in 
situational awareness and it's believed that there may a long term effects that 
ultimately compromise rational judgement."

 
ACCORDING TO NEWS24 REPORTS, THE NEW DISEASE IS THE RESULT OF SEA GULLS
CONTRCTING BIRD FLU AND THEN COMING OVER HERE LOOKING FOR FOOD WHICH THEY
FOUND AT FARMS FEEDING RECYCLED ANIMAL SLURRY TO COWS. APPARENTLY THE GULLS 
ABILITY TO PICK UP FOOD WITHOUT LANDING WHERE THEY WOULD GET STUCK IN THE MUD 
IS WHAT DID IT. THIS GULL ABILITY HAS BEEN KNOWN ABOUT FOR A LONG TIME ON THE 
INTERNET.

 
SEND THIS WARNING TO EVERYIONE YOU KNOW!!!

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