In an age where people love to try to scam you over the Internet, it amazes me how many people actually believe someone will pay you or some picture will appear on your screen by simply forwarding an email.

I received the email below a few days ago and before it ‘graced’ my inbox, I could see that it had been to well over 200 other email addresses who recipients subsequently forwarded it. I remember getting emails like this 15 years ago when I first got email, so apparently they are still going strong.

These emails are a complete waste of time, bandwidth and storage. In fact if I were a spammer, I would have just been hand delivered over 200 confirmed working email addresses.

If you get an email like this, please do everyone a favor and delete it immediately.

Here is the email text (seriously, who actually believes this?):

Read  carefully…
THIS  TOOK TWO PAGES OF THE TUESDAY USATODAY – IT IS FOR REAL
To all of my friends, I do not usually forward  messages,
But this is from my friend [...] and she  really is
an attorney.
If she says that this will  work – It will work. After all, what have
you got to lose?
SORRY EVERYBODY.. JUST HAD TO TAKE THE CHANCE!!! I’m an
attorney, And I know the law. This thing is for real. Rest  assured
AOL and  Intel will follow through with their  promises for
fear of facing a multimillion-dollar class action  suit similar to the one
filed by PepsiCo against General  Electric not too long ago.
Dear Friends: Please do not  take this for a junk letter.
Bill Gates 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 check.

Regards.

[...]
Thought this  was a scam myself, But two weeks after receiving this
e-mail  and forwarding it on. Microsoft contacted me for my address and
within days, I received a check for $24, 800.00. You need to  respond
before the beta testing is over. If anyone can afford  this, Bill gates is the
man.
It’s all  marketing expense to him. Please forward this to as many
people as possible. You are bound to get at least $10, 000.00
We’re not going to help them out with their e-mail beta test  without
getting a little something for our time. My brother’s &nb sp;girlfriend got in
on this a few months ago. When I went to  visit him [...], she showed me her check.   It was for the sum of $4,324.44 and
was  stamped ‘Paid In Full’.