Hoax Advisory: Nike email tracing contest
Dateline: 02/25/98The Bill Gates email tracing hoax has morphed again.
The latest mutation began circulating in early February, revamped with the claim that Nike Inc., the sports shoe and apparel manufacturer, is giving away gift certificates to randomly selected participants in a contest devised to help Microsoft test its new "email tracing system."
There is no such system; nor, says Nike, does the Beaverton, Oregon-based company ever engage in unsolicited email promotions. Recipients of the chain letter are asked to refrain from forwarding the misinformation to others.
Nike has not been able to establish where the false information originated but confirms that the chain letter was not authorized by the company itself.
"Nike policy forbids the sending of unsolicited email," says Scott Reames, corporate communications manager. "We are dismayed that people are falling victim to this hoax."
Nike's technical staff first became aware that something was amiss on February 11, when it found that inquiries were being bounced back to senders from swoosh@nike.com, an invalid email address. The errant messages all contained a variation of the same puzzling request: "Please enter me in the contest."
It didn't become clear what was going on until the next day, when the following message arrived at the swoosh address:
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Date: Mon, 9 Feb 1998 00:09:56 -0800 (PST) From: swoosh@nike.com Dear Student, We at Nike are of the philosophy that the stronger the body, the stronger
the mind. It is because of this philosophy that we are offering free Nike
shoes and clothing as part of a contest that all of you are invited to
participate in.
After one month of testing the tracing software, we will randomly select 500 names from the list of recipients and each will be given their choice of a gift certificate for $120.00 toward any purchase of Nike shoes or apparel. Thank you and good luck. Computer systems manager: Alan Whitman E-mail: swoosh@nike.com NIKE INFORMATION MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT: Beaverton, OR |
Fearing a deluge of email from freebie-seeking Netizens, Nike decided to take immediate action, first installing a trap to save all incoming messages in hopes of tracing the origin of the chain letter, then setting up an autoresponder to generate the following reply to all inquiries:
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"Swoosh@nike.com" is NOT a valid Nike address. You have been the unfortunate victim of a hoax -- reports of a Nike 'software testing' promotion are false. Nike does not send unsolicited email to anyone. All mail sent to "Swoosh@nike.com" are being returned. We regret that Nike's friends and customers are having their time and bandwidth wasted by this hoax. |
It's unknown precisely how many messages were bounced before Nike began monitoring the hoax-related traffic, but a source within the company estimates it has received 300 inquiries addressed to swoosh@nike.com since February 11.
A press release disavowing the information contained in the chain letter went out on Monday. Efforts to trace down the perpetrator or perpetrators of the hoax are ongoing.
Update:
Another Internet hoax running concurrently with the one above involves rumors that Nike will exchange new shoes for old ones sent in to its "Reuse-a-shoe" program. This information is also false. For the whole story, see Nike Says: 'No Free Shoes!'.
Related article:
- Bill Gates Has $1000 (and a Virus) Just for You!
Origin of the fabled "email tracing program"
http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/weekly/aa022598.htm
