The Bill Gates Bonus Chain Email

1997

Date: 1997 · Place: Global email, originator unknown · Figures: Anonymous originator · Bill Gates, unwilling protagonist · Tags: Hoax, Chain Email, Bait 01. Microsoft Is Tracking This Email In 1997 an email begins circulating claiming Microsoft is beta-testing an email tracing program. Forward the message to enough friends and Bill Gates will personally send you a cheque, plus a copy of Windows 98. The numbers escalate by variant: $245, then $1,000, then $5,000 per forward, sometimes a trip to Disney World. It is the second viral hoax to dominate mainstream inboxes, after Good Times, and the first to use greed rather than fear as the propagation engine. 02. The Format Outlives Email Microsoft denies it formally, repeatedly, for over a decade. The forwards keep coming. Versions are still being shared on WhatsApp in 2018. The template, a powerful entity is secretly rewarding people who share this, becomes the spine of every Facebook share-to-win scam and every say amen chain post. It is the moment forwarding becomes its own reward structure, dopamine via sent-mail folder. Sources • Snopes, 'Bill Gates Money Giveaway' (first logged October 1997) • Microsoft official statement (microsoft.com/presspass, 1999) • Wired, 'Why Won't This Email Hoax Die?' (Brian McWilliams, 4 January 2002)