Friday, September 15, 2006

Pwnage Quotes 11 (Silly people...)

You know those chain emails that tell you to forward the message to other people in your contacts list or your hotmail account will be deleted, posing to be some sort way to ensure that people are using their accounts so they can clear up inactive users? They get more and more convincing by the day, don't they? Although I've never believed anyone of them since day one, they're starting to look so authentic that I'm starting to catch myself believing some of them. This is how convincing they're getting. I got this yesterday in my inbox.

---

hey everyone, i had a look on the internet and its actually true . On the 1st of november , we will have to pay for the use of our MSN and email accounts unless we send this message to at least 18 contacts on your contact list. It's no joke if you don't believe me then go to the site(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/1189119.stm) and see for yourself. Anyways once you've sent this message to at least 18 contacts, your msn dude will become blue. please copy and paste don't forward cos people won't take notice of it. Hey it is Andy and john the directors of MSN, sorry for the interruption but msn is closing down. this is because too many inconsiderate people are taking up all the name (eg making up lots of different accounts for just one person), we only have 578 names left. If you would like to close your account, DO NOT SEND THIS MESSAGE ON. If you would like to keep your account, then SEND THIS MESSAGE TO EVERYONE ON YOUR CONTACT LIST. This is no joke, we will be shutting down the servers. Send it on, thanks. WHO EVER DOES NOT SEND THIS MESSEAGE, YOUR ACCOUNT WILL BE CLOSED AND YOU WILL COST 10.00 A MONTH TO USE. SEND THIS TO EVERYONE ON YOUR CONTACT LIST. NOW YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO. PLEASE DO NOT FORWARD THIS or REPLAY. COPY THE WHOLE EMAIL. GO BACK TO YOUR INBOX AND CLICK ON NEW. AND PASTE

---

Okie, so I was willing to ignore and forgive some of the scathing grammar mistakes, like "inconsiderate people are taking up all the name" and "This is no joke". But the thing that really interested me was that this one had a link, a legitimate link that claims to prove its authenticity. So I thought, this I gotta see, and I checked it out. I was redirected to BBC News (surprise!) and the article:

---

MSN 'to charge user fee'

Microsoft is reportedly planning to start charging surfers for the improved services of its MSN internet portal.

The site receives 200 million visits a month worldwide, and is the UK's most viewed website.

Microsoft's UK managing director told the Independent on Sunday that fees could be introduced within 12 months.

Any move by MSN to start fee-charging would pave the way for its competitors yahoo.com and aol.com to follow suit.

---

... and blah blah... some discussion about how feasibile it's gonna be, and then I saw this line that made me laugh out loud:

---

"Microsoft stresses that the site's core facilities including Hotmail will remain free."

---

Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.