Bill Gates fortune

Sophos hoax description: Bill Gates fortune

You've all seen the e-mail. No doubt that somebody has sent it to you at some point. The one that says if you forward it, Bill Gates and Microsoft will send you cash. Lots of cash. One version of this e-mail states you will make easily make over $10,000 US. Okay. Sure. We are all smart people here. Let's do the math.

According to Statistics Canada, in 2003, 64% of households have internet access. In 2001, there were 8,371,020 family households. Now, I know that most homes have more than one user of the internet, and several email address, but for this exercise, I'm going to say that it is just one e-mail per household. That would mean 5,357,453 email users. Remember, this is only based on personal accounts, not business.

So, now let's assume that only 50% of the people get the e-mail. That's 2,678,726 victims of the forward button. I realize the e-mail said that you will get $10,000, but I'm going to bet on the safe side, and say that you only get a cheque for $5,000. Still better than a kick in the ass with a frozen mukluk. That would mean, that the geek who became king, would need to shell out $13,393,630,000. And that's only to Canadians. I know that Bill Gates is not eating Kraft Dinner because he needs to, but I think that $13.4 billion is even a stretch for him.

Now having thought of it that way, don't you think that maybe an email saying you are going to get rich simply from clicking forward is a little too good to be true? Not to mention the privacy issue if Microsoft could track your e-mail use like that? I know email can be tracked, and contains more data than one may first assume, but I don't think that it is to the level that this hoax would have you believe. And I'm sure, that everyone would say "Oh, I'd never fall for that one." So why then, does this e-mail still appear in the top 10 list for hoaxes going around?

Please, Forward responsibly.