Email for Cash!

Here is an urban legend that has been circulating for a while, but it re-appeared in my email recently. This is the story that Microsoft will pay you $245 for each person you forward the email to.

  

Yes! You heard correctly! Microsoft and AOL are performing email beta tests and they are willing to pay big $$ to you if you would just forward this email to all your friends!

When you get this email your mind is fluttering between "this is stupid" and "what if it's real?" The idea is so ludicrous that something happens in your mind. "What if it's REAL!!!" after all, the email quotes lawyers who have "checked it out" and it's all "legit." Plus, what's the big deal... it's easy to forward a few emails.

How can one free themselves of this dilemna? One safe way to start is to consider the facts. What can we know about this type of claim?

Why don't we think about what's going on in technology today? Email is old news. Billions of emails are sent every day. It is one of the simplest forms of communication on the internet since it is usually very small and doesn't involve any special video streaming or special treatment of any kind.

                   

                  The "legend" claims that AOL and Intel have to test their email in order to ensure that AOL remains the most widely used program. The facts are that the internet uses industry standards and there is no way to use a completely proprietary system that the internet can't route. Email programs abound and they are all pretty easy to use. Having a successful email client wouldn't distinguish one company over another or "ensure" anything.

Since the quotes from "lawyers" seem to give the email an aire of legitimacy, let's think about this. These are just words in an email. Can you look up these "lawyers" and verify that they exist and that they actually "checked it out?" It's just easier to go ahead and forward the email... just to be sure!

The most fascinating thing about this email is that someone really did forward it. In fact, this has been bouncing around the internet for years, so thousands of people have been forwarding it. Does this mean all of them have similar reasons for forwarding it? Are they all completely ignorant of technology and how the world works? This particular email was forwarded by a friend of my mom's. Their purpose was probably to feel helpful, needed, "in the know." Their knowledge of computers and internet is limited to sending email and poking around on the internet.

This legend plays upon various "worldviews." One, that the super-rich are soooo rich that they wouldn't notice the stupidity of paying anyone $245 to forward an email. Another "worldview" is that lawyers know everything and will make sure that an email claim is enforced.

When I first saw this email, I thought it was funny and that nobody would believe it. Then I wondered about those people who got their $24,800.00 checks and I thought wow it must be real!!! What do I have to lose! Everything was quite compelling. The big corporations, the rich tycoons, the lawyers. All became a buzz of OMG I gotta get the money or I'll regret it!!!!

                   

But then I realized that all the people that forwarded it to me must have believed it. Apparently, in their rush to get some cash the didn't have time to get the real scoop on snopes. There were a lot of people believing this, with no evidence whatsoever. But if it were so, I'm sure I would have heard that my mom's friend was driving around in a Mercedes.

This legend seems to gain momentum in a population distrustful of large corporations and the government. Conspiracy theories abound. This particular legend plays upon the perceived disconnect of the sort-of alternate rules that large corporations play by.

It is an unsettling thought that the masses (the voting public!) are basically ignorant of the issues facing corporations and government. People who don't have a feel for these issues are most likely to accept and pass on legends like this.