quick clicks

home style today articles

home style today q&a

traveling today articles

traveling today q&a

community & groups

research baby names

prepare a birth plan

content channels

ip channel rss feeds

read birth stories

read parenting stories

recommended books

e-newsletters

safety recalls

ip diaries

ip store

mom of the month

dad of the month

editor's letter

letters to the editor

Expert Q&A

	By iParenting Staff iParenting Staff Experts

I got an e-mail that said it was from Bill Gates and Walt Disney, Jr. It said in part, "Here at Disney we are working with Microsoft which has just compiled an e-mail tracing program that tracks everyone to whom this message is forwarded to. It does this through an unique IP (Internet Protocol) address log book database. We are experimenting with this and need your help. Forward this to everyone you know and if it reaches 13000 people, 1300 of the people on the list will receive $5000, and the rest will receive a free trip for two to Disney World for one week during the summer of 1999 at our expense." Is this for real?

Sorry, it's not even slightly true. Starting with the fact that Walt never had a son to call "Junior," (His brother, Roy Disney, was the one who had a Junior) this is just one big fish tale from top to bottom. It is a nice way for other people to add your name to their e-mail lists, though -- think of all the people who got that same letter with your address attached!

The message you received is a mere ripoff of an older hoax letter about Bill Gates' e-mail tracking software (which does not exist). Come on - Microsoft may not be your favorite company, but they're not stupid enough to pay random people thousands of dollars for forwarding an e-mail message. (How do you think Gates stayed so wealthy?)

Why someone bothered to write these letters is a mystery to those of us who have more productive things to do with our time, but one thing is clear: these hoaxes are annoying. They spread quickly, take up time in your day and space in your e-mailbox, and are hard to get rid of... because people keep forwarding them.

On the Internet than almost anyplace else, you have to remember the adage, "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is." Before you send a message of even slightly questionable origin off to your friends or co-workers, check it out at the source yourself - visit the site of the company in question or drop by one of these reputable hoax sites:

http://urbanlegends.miningco.com/library/bltrackd.php
http://www.philb.com/hoaxes.php
http://www.datafellows.com/news/hoax/
http://ciac.llnl.gov/ciac/CIACHoaxes.phpl
http://www.nonprofit.net/hoax/
http://www.nai.com/services/support/hoax/
http://kumite.com/myths/
http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/hoax.phpl

P.S. The "stolen kidney" thing is a hoax, too."

View more Q&A by this Expert