A new and improved version appeared within a few weeks of the original. The mutation spread quickly, supplanting its predecessor, and was still circulating as of August 1998.

The revised text retained most of the basic elements of the earlier message (including bad grammar), with just enough added refinements to make it seem more authentic.

Still implausibly signed "Your friend, Bill Gates," the message now purported to originate from Microsoft headquarters. The mythical software was given a name, "Beta Email Tracking Application," and accompanied by a gobbledygook explanation of how it worked. The first 1,000 people to forward it to all their friends would receive, in addition to $1,000 of Bill Gates' own money, a free copy of Windows 98:

Though no more credible than the first version, it appeared authentic enough to achieve an even wider circulation, which caught the attention of the press. A story in the February 15, 1998 edition of the Chicago Sun-Times included a terse statement from Microsoft's public relations department:

This message did not come from Mr. Gates. There is no such program and no such offer is being made to our customers. Someone is playing a bad joke.

Mr. Gates himself refrained from commenting on the chain letter until he wrote of it in an essay about spam published in the New York Times in March 1998. He took that opportunity to label it "fraudulent," "bogus," and, most Gates-like of all, "hooey."