So where’s my $245?

Every week, our electronic mail boxes get “filled” with all sorts of communication – work assignments, social network updates, love letters and yes, chain mail. Are you one of those in the habit of forwarding those rather annoying chain mail, in hopes of “deflecting bad luck for the next 7 years” and instead passing the curse on to someone else? It’s baloney to me. I never forward those chain mails; they go directly to trash. Collectively, the chain letters say I’m supposed to have about 15,736 years of bad luck by now but hey, I’m doing fine. But certain chain mails do catch the eye, especially where money – free money – is involved. They’re better known as scams.

A common one is a letter claiming that Bill Gates is sharing his fortune. In summary, it reads: Dear Friends: Please do not take this for a junk letter. Bill Gates sharing his fortune. Microsoft and AOL are now the largest Internet companies and in an effort to make sure that Internet Explorer remains the most widely used program, Microsoft and AOL are running an e-mail beta. When you forward this e-mail to friends, Microsoft can and will track it (If you are a Microsoft Windows user) for a two week period. For every person that you forward this e-mail to, Microsoft will pay you $245. For every person that you sent it to that forwards it on, Microsoft will pay you $243 and for every third person that receives it, you will be paid $241. Within two weeks, Microsoft will contact you for your address and then send you a check. Regards. Charles S Bailey General Manager; Field Operations; 1-800-842-2332 Ext.. 1085 or 904-1085 or RNX 292-1085.

Naturally, many of my friends forwarded the e-mail like mad, saying that they had nothing to lose by sending. I figured even a few golden minutes of time was worth more than forwarding that mail for nothing. Sure I’m also interested in “earning” more than $245 from Microsoft and AOL but it only took a quick check in Google to ascertain that the scam’s been around for years, and it’s probably still ongoing. There was no news report in the papers, and Bill Gates is certainly not giving money to any of us at that rate.

An equally popular but more dangerous scam was what’s called the Nigerian scam, where a wealthy foreign official claiming to be a banker or politician pledges millions of US dollars for your assistance as an overseas partner in moving funds from bank to bank. The victim discloses a bank account number, authorizes the transfer of funds, and gets sucked dry for all the account’s worth. Of course, no evidence of the millions of dollars in a promised reward ever reaches the helpless victim. And here’s another caveat: As tempting as it may be, never reply to one of those chain mails from unknown senders or you’ll get many more where that came from!

Even via text, many cell phone users have gotten thrilled – and then get terribly disappointed – when they receive messages telling them they’ve won millions of pesos in cash from a raffle, from the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes or another government institution. Many have gone as far complying with the scammers’ demands for cell phone load or flying all the way to “awards ceremony”, only to find an empty hall. It’s sad how many have been too gullible in this one – sure the news is exciting, but how can one win in raffle that one didn’t even participate in?

It’s tough world we live in and it’s not enough that we’re intellectually endowed; we have to be street-smart and alert, too. It’s not that we have to be terribly hardened and suspicious of every offer, and hiss at strangers on the streets. But we do have to remember that when it comes to big sums of money, trust is earned, not freely given. To fall victim to a scam doesn’t take a really good scammer. On the part of the victim, it just takes immense gullibility and a bit of sheer greed.

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