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Chain Letters - scam?


ltsmadrid

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Along the years I have received many of these: "Please send on , please help etc. mails" and I have always sent them along to all my friends thinking that maybe I was doing something good or at least not doing any harm by it.Yesterday I received an e-mail of "Please help Baby Natalie" (am attaching the picture with text). Curiosity got the best of me as I could not quite work out why AOL would pay 5cents per email and how they can track how many emails have gone around so I decided to look this up in internet and bumped into this : Break the chainMy question is: who is telling the truth? I imagine its "break the chain" (rather prefer it to be)and: would AOL pay five cents per e-mail for a good cause? (is there a way of tracking all e-mails sent in a chain letter ?Just curiosity really and also to let my friend know that in any case this baby Natalie is not dyeing of a brain tumour and that maybe it is not such a good idea to bombard your friends with chain letters after all !

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I'm inclined to believe that the chain letter (and all such chains claiming that aol will donate money) are fake simply because.. well.. I doubt very seriously that aol would do anything like that. It's clear (by their insistance on using out of the country call-centers and half-trained help-line operators) that aol not only cares nothing for its customers, but that it's willing to sacrifice customer service in a selfish attempt to save money. Bearing that in mind, I see little reason why they'd give money away per forwarded email.No idea if the email tracking thing is possible, though. I'm sure the technology exists, but whether or not AOL employs it is another question.

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is there a way of tracking all e-mails sent in a chain letter
No, there isn't. The SMTP protocol does not allow for anything like that. Companies can monitor their own network hardware to see what goes through, but you can't just automatically track some arbitrary piece of data as it gets duplicated and sent around the world. This goes for Microsoft, IBM, Hotmail, or whoever else the emails claim is tracking everthing. It's simply not possible. In order for a single email to be tracked around the globe, everyone who operates network hardware would have to cooperate and monitor traffic to look for a specific thing.Also, it makes zero business sense to offer to pay for something like that. The reason is because there is no ceiling on the cost. If they actually paid money, myself and 10,000 others like me would write scripts to send out millions of emails per day, and then AOL would be bound to pay us more money then they have. So it doesn't make much sense to make an offer like that.Add to that, can you find a single public record (news story, personal account, whatever) of anyone in the history of the internet being paid money because they forwarded an email? Because I can't..
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I am an anti chain letter person, I have never relpied, forwarded, or send chain mail. I see it as a big waste of time..Well If chain mail comes true, I'm going to be ran over by a train 3 years ago.. can't wait for that to happen, in the past...

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I am an anti chain letter person, I have never relpied, forwarded, or send chain mail. I see it as a big waste of time..Well If chain mail comes true, I'm going to be ran over by a train 3 years ago.. can't wait for that to happen, in the past...

Me to, but i wasn't always, i used to be kinda superstitious about them.I used to go along with them, but after a while you get sick of seeing them and hit the delete key, i mean c'mon "if you don't forward this email onto 100 people in the next five minutes then something terrible is going to happen" etcSomebody needs to sort these people out with a bb bat :)
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wow. so true, i have recieved these messages from the time i sat on the pc. i even felt pity for many at the beginning, that i even aske dmy father to donate some money, but now seeing them everyday i know their tacticsread this wonderful message, i have a few more fantastic

MR.DAVID KHUMALOEmail:davekhumalo02@yahoo.co.ukPhone:+27-730819605Dear Sir/Madam,You may be surprised to receive this letter from me since you don't know Me personally. I am Mr.DAVID KHUMALO the son of Mr. FRANK KHUMALO, who was Recently murdered in the land dispute in Zimbabwe.My late father was among the few black Zimbabwean rich farmers murdered in cold blood by the agents of the ruling government of president Robert Mugabe, for his alleged support and sympathy for the Zimbabwean opposition party controlled by the white minority. Before his death he had taken to Johannesburg South Africa to deposit the sum of US$15 Million (FIFTEEN Million United States Dollars) with a Security and Finance Company as if he foresaw the looming danger in Zimbabwe. The money was deposited in a box as valuables to avoid much demurrage from the Security Company. This money was embarked for the purchase of new machinery and Chemical For farms and the establishment of new farms in Lesotho and Swaziland. This land problem arose when President Robert Mugabe introduced a new land act that wholly affected the rich white farmers and some few blacks who vehemently condemned the "modus operandi" adopted by the government. Heads of Governments from the west, especially Britain and United States of America have voiced their condemnation of Mugabe's plan. Subsequently, South African Development Community (S.A.D.C) have continuously supported Mugabe's new land act, it is against this background that I and my family who are currently residing in South Africa as refugees have decided to transfer my Father's money into a Foreign account. As the eldest son of my Father, I am saddled with the responsibility of Seeking a genuine foreign account where this money could be transferred Without the knowledge of my government who are tactically freezing our Family wealth and South Africa's government seems to be playing along With them. I am faced with the dilemma of investing this money in South Africa for fear of encountering the same experience in future since both countries have almost the same political history. More so, the South African Foreign Exchange policy does not allow such investment hence I am asylum seeker.I must let you know that this transaction is 100% risk free and the Nature of your business does not necessarily matter. For your assistance, we are offering you 20% of the total sum, 75% for me and my family, while 5% will be mapped out for any expenses we may encure during this transaction. We wish to invest our money on commercial property based on your advice. Finally, If this proposal is acceptable by you, please confirm your Interest via my phone number-or you reply through email:davekhumalo02@yahoo.co.ukBest Regards.MR David KHUMALO
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MR.DAVID KHUMALOEmail:davekhumalo02@yahoo.co.ukPhone:+27-730819605Dear Sir/Madam,You may be surprised to receive this letter from me since you don't know Me personally. I am Mr.DAVID KHUMALO the son of Mr. FRANK KHUMALO, who was Recently murdered in the land dispute in Zimbabwe.My late father was among the few black Zimbabwean rich farmers murdered in cold blood by the agents of the ruling government of president Robert Mugabe, for his alleged support and sympathy for the Zimbabwean opposition party controlled by the white minority. Before his death he had taken to Johannesburg South Africa to deposit the sum of US$15 Million (FIFTEEN Million United States Dollars) with a Security and Finance Company as if he foresaw the looming danger in Zimbabwe. The money was deposited in a box as valuables to avoid much demurrage from the Security Company. This money was embarked for the purchase of new machinery and Chemical For farms and the establishment of new farms in Lesotho and Swaziland. This land problem arose when President Robert Mugabe introduced a new land act that wholly affected the rich white farmers and some few blacks who vehemently condemned the "modus operandi" adopted by the government. Heads of Governments from the west, especially Britain and United States of America have voiced their condemnation of Mugabe's plan. Subsequently, South African Development Community (S.A.D.C) have continuously supported Mugabe's new land act, it is against this background that I and my family who are currently residing in South Africa as refugees have decided to transfer my Father's money into a Foreign account. As the eldest son of my Father, I am saddled with the responsibility of Seeking a genuine foreign account where this money could be transferred Without the knowledge of my government who are tactically freezing our Family wealth and South Africa's government seems to be playing along With them. I am faced with the dilemma of investing this money in South Africa for fear of encountering the same experience in future since both countries have almost the same political history. More so, the South African Foreign Exchange policy does not allow such investment hence I am asylum seeker.I must let you know that this transaction is 100% risk free and the Nature of your business does not necessarily matter. For your assistance, we are offering you 20% of the total sum, 75% for me and my family, while 5% will be mapped out for any expenses we may encure during this transaction. We wish to invest our money on commercial property based on your advice. Finally, If this proposal is acceptable by you, please confirm your Interest via my phone number-or you reply through email:davekhumalo02@yahoo.co.ukBest Regards.MR David KHUMALO

the person whoever wrote this mail, he's put in a lot of thinking to develop a story this good.... like a movie or somthing... :)
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I am saddled with the responsibility of Seeking a genuine foreign account where this money could be transferred
Translated - Give me your bank account details so that i can strip you of every last penny :)
I must let you know that this transaction is 100% risk free
Yes i totally believe you... not :)
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What was that story about, a guy who lost his dad and needs to hide $15 Million in your bank account?What??? Why would I care if you have $15 Million and someone's trying to take it... If you put $15 Million in my bank account, you wouldn't see it again..

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What was that story about, a guy who lost his dad and needs to hide $15 Million in your bank account?What??? Why would I care if you have $15 Million and someone's trying to take it... If you put $15 Million in my bank account, you wouldn't see it again..

Actually if you give him access to your bank account you won't see anything again :)
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If you put $15 Million in my bank account, you wouldn't see it again..
There is no $15 Million, it's just a scam so people think "yes, give me a piece of that" and send him bank details, then you get robbed :)
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I never forward chain letter e-mails. In fact, if I see I'm just one on a huge mailing list, I'll delete it outright unless I know it's from one of my few contacts I can be sure don't send them on, in which case it must be a funny joke or something else worth reading. :)

Actually if you give him access to your bank account you won't see anything again :)

You might be staring out from the inside of jailbars though.
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he stands on soap box , what does it means ??? :)

In English, or at least in America, when someone preaches or lectures you generally say they are "standing on a soap box". That probably comes from the days of circuses or something, when someone yelling something wanted to be heard, they would stand on something to be higher than everyone else.
i have recieved these messages from the time i sat on the pc
Good lord, you didn't break it I hope.
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