The The AOL-Intel Merger Email Tracking Beta Test Is A Hoax

Last significant update: 13 July 2000

This information can be freely reproduced in any medium, as long as the information is unmodified.

Thanks to the Reverend Ted Grove for first bringing this to our attention, on 16 December, 1999. So many hoaxes; so little time! Yet another dumb hoax of the "Get rich quick via email tracking" type -- as you know if you've read our Microsoft Email Tracking hoax, email cannot be tracked, and even if it could, this would be a reverse pyramid scheme that would bankrupt the purported benefactor, in days if not seconds.

So let's dissect it, to see its many hoax giveaways:

Subject:  FWD: Fw: This is real!
> Forwarded by on 12/15/99 09:15 AM 
> Subject: real money
> >>>>>>> >> > >> >

Hmmm. That's 1, 2, 3, ... 13 levels if indenting, not counting the one for forwarding it to us. Thirteen times!! That's a good hint that it is a hoax, right there. In the interests of readability, I've trimmed away all those extra >s from the remaining text:

I'm an attorney, and I know the law.  

Ok -- so since when do we start trusting legal experts for computer issues?

[Since when did the general populace start trusting lawyers, for that matter! ;-)]

This thing is for real. Rest assured AOL and Intel will follow through with
their promises for fear of facing an multimillion dollar class action suit
similar to the one filed by Pepsico against General Electric not too long ago.

Well, this was already well circulated back in December 1999 -- have you heard of anyone who has gotten such a payout? Surely it would have made the evening news by now.

No?

Then why, pray tell, haven't we heard of the class action lawsuit?

Simple answer: Because it is a hoax.

That should be enough to discount it, but let's continue:

My brother's girlfriend got in on this a few months ago. When I went to visit
him for the Baylor/UT game she showed me her check. It was for the sum of
$4,324.44 and was stamped "Paid In Full". Like I said before, I know the law,
and this is for real. If you don't believe me you can email her at
jpiltman@baylor.edu.  

Here is the major flaw in hoaxes: either they are vague -- and hence unbelievable -- or they provide details that can be proven false. This is an example of the latter -- there is no Ms. Piltman at Baylor -- check for yourself at Baylor University's Directory page (leaving our site).

Not a Piltman in sight when I checked on 16 December 1999, and not today either.

Guess why: Because it is a hoax.

She's eager to answer any questions you guys might have.

Had anyone who believed this hoax bothered to email "her", the hoax would have become obvious.

On it goes:

Thanks, Dirk.  I know I'm already in.

> Moore, Dirk" wrote: If you don't do this, you must be really, really dumb.

Instead, it is the almost surely mythical Mr. Moore who would be the foolish one, for believing such nonsense.

> > From: James M. Schwarnica
> >      This is not a joke. I am forwarding this because the person who
> > sent it to me is a good friend and does not send me junk.

Why in the world would such a vague appeal to authority bear any weight??

> > Intel and AOL are now discussing a merger which would make them the
> > largest Internet company and in an effort make sure that AOL remains the
> > most widely used program, Intel and AOL are running an e-mail beta test.

As mentioned above, no such email tracking system exists -- nor can it, without resources like the National Security Agency, anyway.

> > When you forward this e-mail to friends, Intel 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 $203.15, for
> > every person that you sent it to that forwards it on, Microsoft will pay
> > you $156.29 and for every third person that receives it, you will be paid
> > $17.65 

That would bankrupt Microsoft almost instantaneously, believe it or not. I'm not claiming that this would be a Bad Thing -- just that Microsoft accountants would never allow it.

> > Within two weeks, Intel will contact you for your address and then
> > send you a check. I thought this was a scam myself, 

If this person actually existed, "thinking" wouldn't be something he'd do.

"Bearing false witness" would describe it suitably.

> > but a friend of my good friend's Aunt Patricia, who works at Intel

Yet another phony appeal to an untrackable authority.

> > actually got a check for $4,543.23 by forwarding this e-mail.  

Liar. [Can a non-existent person be a liar? Probably not. Apply it to the hoaxter, then.]

> > Try it, what have you got to lose????

Lots of things. Respect. Trust. A less burdened Internet. I could go on, but you get the idea.

Please do not forward this -- or any other hoax -- to all your friends.

Instead, you should reply to the sender -- and as far back up the email chain as you have energy -- informing the originators that this is a hoax. For this particular hoax, I suggest that you provide a pointer to this URL (http://www.umich.edu/~virus-busters/hoaxes/aol-intel.html)

For another opinion on this and similar hoaxes, see the excellent analysis at Thousand Dollar Bill (leaving our site) page at the Snopes site.

For virus or hoax info, please see our main page (http://www.umich.edu/~virus-busters/) or go to another reputable site, like The Urban Legends Reference Pages (leaving our site).

   -BPB

visits to this page since 13 July 2000 13:00 EST