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'AOL/Intel Merger' Chain Letter

Netlore Archive: Ho-hum... another chain letter hoax sweeps the Net.

Description: Email hoax
Circulating since: Dec 1999
Status: False


Example #1:
Email contributed by Becky M., Dec. 14, 1999:

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 an multimillion dollar class action suit similar to the one filed by Pepsico against General Electric not too long ago. I'll be damned if we're all going to help them out with their e-mail beta test without getting alittle something for our time.

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 . She's eager to answer any questions you guys might have. Thanks, Dirk. I know I'm already in.

Moore, Dirk wrote: If you don't do this, you must be really, really dumb.
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. 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. 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 Within two weeks, Intel will contact you for your address and then send you a check. I thought this was a scam myself, but a friend of my good friend's Aunt Patricia, who works at Intel actually got a check for $4,543.23 by forwarding this e-mail.

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


Example #2:
Email contributed by Joe F., Jan. 7, 2000:

Subject: Fwd: FW: Could It Be Real????????

Subject: Real Money

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 an multimillion dollar class action suit similar to the one filed by Pepsico against General Electric not too long ago. I'll be damned if we're all going to help them out with their e-mail beta test without getting a little something for our time.

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 e-mail her at jpiltman@baylor.edu. She's eager to answer any questions you guys might have.

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. 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. 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. Within two weeks,Intel will contact you for your address and then send you a check. I thought this was a scam myself, but a friend of my good friend's Aunt Patricia, who works at Intel actually got a check for $4,543.23 by forwarding this e-mail.

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


Analysis: What have you got to lose? Only your dignity. This is a recycled hoax. Don't invite embarrassment by buying into it.

New variations on the "email tracking" theme crop up on a regular basis. None of them are legitimate. "Email tracking," as described in these messages, doesn't exist. No company run by anyone with a brain is giving away cash or free merchandise to people who blindly forward chain letters.

Stop and think: Why would Microsoft pay you cash for forwarding this chain letter when it's Intel and AOL who are supposedly merging and behind this "email beta test?" (The confusion likely results from the fact that half of this message was cut-and-pasted intact from a different hoax, the earlier AOL/Microsoft Merger chain letter. There are also similarities to the Bill Gates chain letter of 1997, the granddaddy of all these pranks.)

Don't bother writing to the jpiltman@baylor.edu email address hoping to receive confirmation that the message is true. No such user exists. Your email will be returned undeliverable. Other versions purport to have been written by an attorney named "Pearlas Sanborn" (also rendered "Pearlas Sandborn" or "Pearl Sandborn"), who doesn't exist either.


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Last updated 07/02/10


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