Comments by Peter Kohler: "What goes around comes around." Indeed. It's now November 2000 and this chain letter has been haunting the Internet for at least two years – so far. The earliest sighting on record is November 1998. What's that darned billionaire waiting for? Perhaps he's waiting for this missive to leave the realm of fiction and, through sheer repetitiveness of reproduction on computer screens, enter the realm we call reality. In any case, five lousy cents for every forward? C'mon. Why not just pay off the darned bills and get the good deed done!
Using common sense, we again conclude: fiction.
And let's not forget this little – wearying – matter of email tracking. Even if all the rest of the missive seemed real enough, we'd still be stuck staring at this curious and pesky problem. The billionaire is at some point in time (at which point is not given in the text) going to have to calculate how much dough to fork over to the good cause, and to do this he is presumably going to rely on a computer program that can track how many times an email is forwarded. That would be the only way, being as the missive provides no contact person or address for us all to notify that we've sent the thing on again. Well, email tracking – at least as regards random, anonymous chain letters forwarded endlessly across the Net – is science fiction. No such computer program exists.
So probably it's best to not forward this one at all.
Similar hoaxes:
Jermaine Beerman Chain Letter
A Georgia billionaire will donate five cents per forward
Jessica Mydek Chain Letter
The American Cancer Society will supposedly donate three cents per forward
Kalin Relek Chain Letter
"BCC Inc." will supposedly donate five cents per forward
Amy Bruce Chain Letter
Make-A-Wish Foundation will supposedly donate seven cents per forward
Slow Dance
The same old hoax plus a smarmy poem
Peter Kohler is a writer and researcher based in Portland, Oregon
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