Thank you for forwarding me the most recent "send this email to all of 
your friends and something great will happen" story.  Unfortunately, 
the story you sent me is yet another in a long string of Internet 
hoaxes.  I have attached an excerpt from an article about this type of 
hoax I recently read on the Internet TOURBUS.  

By the way, if you do not yet subscribe to TOURBUS, I strongly 
recommend that you do.  TOURBUS is a free, semi-weekly Internet 
newsletter that tells you about the latest Internet sites and helps 
you debunk the latest Internet urban legends.  I have included 
TOURBUS subscription information at the bottom of this message.

-----------------------------------------------
Fun With Pattern Recognition -- 14 October 1999
(Updated 18 December 1999)
-----------------------------------------------

There is an entire family of urban legends I want to squish in one 
fell swoop.  Please listen to this carefully: NO ONE IS EVER GOING TO 
GIVE YOU *ANYTHING* FOR FORWARDING AN EMAIL MESSAGE TO ALL OF YOUR 
FRIENDS.  PERIOD.  I don't care what you might have heard from other 
people.  YOU CAN'T GET SOMETHING FOR NOTHING, and you certainly can't 
get something for simply forwarding an email to all of your friends.

With that said, you'd be surprised at how many people still believe
that these silly "forward an email to all of your friends and
something great will happen" hoaxes are true.  What follows is the 
truth about many of the 'email forwarding' hoaxes I have received over
the past couple of weeks.  Play close attention to these -- you'll
notice a distinct pattern:

     - Abercrombie & Fitch is *NOT* going to give you a free gift
       certificate for forwarding an email message to all of your
       friends.

     - Bath & Body Works is *NOT* going to give you a free gift
       certificate for forwarding an email message to all of your
       friends.

     - Columbia House is *NOT* going to send you 10 free CDs for 
       forwarding an email message to all of your friends.

     - The Gap is *NOT* going to give you free cargo pants and
       Hawaiian shirts for forwarding an email message to all of your
       friends.  [This one is my favorite!]

     - The Guinness Book of World Records is *NOT* going to add your
       name to their book for forwarding an email message to all of
       your friends.

     - Honda is *NOT* going to give you a free car for forwarding an
       email message to all of your friends.

     - IBM is *NOT* going to give you a free computer for forwarding
       an email message to all of your friends.

     - J. Crew is *NOT* going to send you a $50 gift certificate for 
       forwarding an email message to all of your friends.

     - M&M's is *NOT* going to give you a free case of M&Ms for
       forwarding an email message to all of your friends.

     - The newly merged Microsoft and AOL is *NOT* going to give you
       money for forwarding an email message to all of your friends
       [and, even sillier, not only have Microsoft and AOL *NOT*
       merged -- US antitrust laws would prohibit such a merger -- 
       but Microsoft and AOL are BITTER ENEMIES!]

     - Microsoft is *NOT* going to give you free money for forwarding
       an email message to all of your friends.

     - Microsoft is also *NOT* going to give you a free copy of
       Windows 98 for forwarding an email message to all of your
       friends.

     - Microsoft and Disney are *NOT* going to give you a free trip 
       to Disney World for forwarding an email message to all of your 
       friends.

     - The Miller Brewing Company is *NOT* going to give you a free 
       six-pack of beer for forwarding an email message to all of 
       your friends.

     - Nike is *NOT* going to give you free shoes for forwarding an
       email message to all of your friends.

     - Old Navy is *NOT* going to give you a free $25 gift card for
       forwarding an email message to all of your friends.

     - Some unnamed billionaire is *NOT* going to make a donation to 
       a dying child in return for your forwarding an email message 
       to all of your friends.

     - Some cancer or disease society is *NOT* going to make a
       donation to a dying child in return for your forwarding an
       email message to all of your friends.  [In fact, every one of
       the Net's "dying kid" stories is an outright hoax ... NOT ONE
       has been true.]

     - Some stranger is not going to magically cause a really neat
       movie to pop-up on your screen in return for your forwarding 
       an email message to all of your friends.

Did you notice an underlying theme in all of these?  FOLKS, NO ONE IS
EVER GOING TO GIVE YOU *ANYTHING* FOR SIMPLY FORWARDING AN EMAIL
MESSAGE TO ALL OF YOUR FRIENDS!  (Gee, where did we hear THAT before?)
:P

What should you do if you receive an "email forwarding" message that
doesn't appear on our list?  Should you forward the message to all of
your friends on the off chance that it just might be true?  Of course
not.  Regardless of how the message is written, it is still a hoax.
And, unfortunately, one of the prices of Net citizenship is vigilance
-- you have to be constantly watching for old hoaxes and urban legends
masquerading as new.

One way to keep up with Net hoaxes and urban legends, especially the
myriad of email forwarding hoaxes, is to bookmark and frequently visit
both [ http://urbanlegends.about.com/ ] and [ http://www.snopes.com/ ].

The other way to keep up with Net hoaxes and urban legends is to start
looking for patterns in these hoaxes.  All email virus warning hoaxes
follow the same pattern.  All "forward an email to all of your friends
and something great will happen" hoaxes also follow a pattern, as do
all of the "dying kid" hoaxes.  Train yourself to recognize these
patterns and you will become a valuable Net asset, able to protect
yourself from future hoaxes and, more importantly, able to share your
Net-hoax-busting knowledge with your friends, family, and co-workers.

=====================[ Tourbus Rider Information ]===================
   The Internet Tourbus - U.S. Library of Congress ISSN #1094-2238
      Copyright 1995-99, Rankin & Crispen - All rights reserved
            Archives on the Web at http://www.TOURBUS.com

Join: Send SUBSCRIBE TOURBUS Your Name to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.AOL.COM
Leave: Send SIGNOFF TOURBUS to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.AOL.COM

    Send this copy to 3 friends and tell them to hop on the Bus!
=====================================================================