Look, I'm not going to criticize anyone for wanting to get rich quick. Anyone who wouldn't to make big bucks without breaking a sweat is either insane, already filthy rich, or lying. But when a chain letter comes along promising you a nice fat paycheck just for passing it along, alarms should really be going off.

I currently get about five emails everyday from Nigerians (with dead multimillionaire relatives) that want to share their inheritence with me. Possible, but highly unlikely. Sure, it's annoying, but I can't really get upset at them. Either the email is from  spammers, doing what spammers do, or it's from  real Nigerians trying to share their wealth with me. :)  It's the "get-rich-quick" schemes that come from *friends* that bother me the most. First, because I like to think I have bright friends, and second, because these are often even more improbable than the Nigerians emails!

Here is a copy of the email that I receive every once in a while, which from my understanding has been circulating since 1997

Dear Friends,
Please do not take this for a junk letter. Bill Gates is sharing his fortune. If you ignore this you will repent later. 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 test.

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 time period.

For every person that you forward this e-mail to, Microsoft will pay you $245.00, for every person that you sent it to that forwards it on, Microsoft will pay you $243.00 and for every third person that receives it, you will be paid $241.00. Within two week! s, Microsoft will contact you for your address and then send you a cheque.

Regards.
Charles S. Bailey
General Manager Field Operations
1-800-842-2332 Ext. 1085 or 904-245-1085 or RNX 292-1085 Charles_Bailey@csx.com

Nevermind the fact that this email would have  us believe that Bill Gates will share his personal fortune with the rest of the world just for passing a chain letter. Nevermind the fact that he'd do this for the sake of some kind of MS AOL venture (why aren't Microsoft or AOL coughing up any money?). And finally, nevermind the fact that there is no way of tracking regular text emails once they have been sent out (there are tricks that can be used via images, which are disabled by most email clients anyway). Perhaps this is the new technology they are beta testing? :)

What I found most disturbing is that many people didn't right off the bat see how the figures given in the email would grow so astronomically large in such a quick amount of time, that neither Bill Gates, nor Microsoft, nor the US government would be able to pay it. Its not that people aren't good at performing simple math. Its that most people have a hard time recognizing how quickly numbers can grow. So allow me to demonstrate:

Looking at the above chain letter, we're told that we'll receive $245 for each email sent (generation 1). We'll get $243 for every email sent by generation 1 recipients (generation 2). Finally, we get $241 for emails sent out by generation 2 recipients (generation 3). Suppose we send out only 10 emails, and that each recipient also sends out 10 emails:
0 + 245 * 10 = $2,450
2450 + 243 * 100 = $26,750
26750 + 241 * 1000 = $267,750
Total cost to Microsoft: $267,750 (this matches what you'd reveive for your "trouble") [Cost of Generation 1]

Of course, generation 2 needs their share of the pie, so lets extend it further...

267750 + 245 * 100 = $292,250
292250 + 243 * 1000 = $535,250
535250 + 241 * 10000 = $2,945,250
Total cost to Microsoft: $2,945,250  [Cost of Generation 2]

And generation 3...
2945250 + 245 * 1000 = $3,190,250
3190250 + 243 * 10000 = $5,620,250
5620250 + 241 * 100000 = $29,720,250
Total cost to Microsoft: $29,720,250  [Cost of Generation 3]

I think you can see where I'm going with this. But in case you still don't, play with the "Microsoft Pyramid Scam Tool" below until you do get it.

Please pass this page along to anyone that needs enlightenment.