A reply to yet another 'Microsoft will pay you $245 per e-mail you send if you register' e-mail:
I wish I could send this to everyone in the world once so I could never say it again. My name is Mitch Garvis, and aside from being the president of the Montreal IT Professionals Community I also hold the following credentials with Microsoft:
- Microsoft Certified Professional;
- Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator;
- Microsoft Certified Small Business Specialist
- Microsoft Gold Certified Partner
- Subject Matter Expert, Microsoft Small Business Server
- Influencer, Microsoft Canada
- Influencer, Microsoft Corporation
- Beta tester – Windows Vista, Windows Longhorn Server, Windows Small Business Server 2003 R2, Internet Explorer 7, MSN Messenger 8.0
I list these credentials so you the reader will see that I am qualified to tell you some simple facts, all of which are verifiable:
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Microsoft does not and cannot track your e-mail. There is no feature in Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, or Microsoft Exchange Server to do that. As well the technology on which the Internet is built (namely your Internet Service Providers, most of whom do NOT use Microsoft as their major platform) makes it absolutely impossible for them to do it. On a side note, if any corporation attempted to do so the Attorney General of the United States of America would have something to say about it – namely because it is illegal to do so;
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Nobody at Microsoft – not a single person in any of the 140-odd buildings in Redmond, Washington – cares who you send e-mail to, nor how much of it you send. None of them. Not the accountants, marketing people, Chief Executive Officer, not the janitorial staff and not the guys who work in their mail room. To believe otherwise would be to have delusions of grandeur;
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Microsoft does indeed beta test their software. The process is long and meticulous, and in every case involves the participation of select participants who are chosen for their interest but also for their expertise in particular areas. None of them are paid a dime for the privilege, and though it would be nice if it were the case it would also increase the price of every piece of software you buy by about twice the price. Now remember, we beta-testers who are not paid a dime are also required to submit bugs and vote on the importance of each one, yet this scam claims that you as a beta tester will be receiving $245 for each e-mail you send… by my list of little under a thousand contacts that would be $231,000 dollars. DOES THAT MAKE SENSE TO YOU?
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Did I mention that nobody at Microsoft cares about who you send e-mail to, and are not trying to track it?
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Internet Explorer, a versatile product to be sure, does many things but does not send or receive e-mail. Even if you use web-based mail it is not IE doing that, it is the e-mail server on the other end of the ether that does that. Oh, and no company that owns a product that holds in excess of 80% market share in its field (independently verified statistics) is going to spend $6 TRILLION dollars (that is a conservative estimate based on someone with 500 contacts sending it to people with 500 contacts each, no residuals or pyramids) to make sure it has not dropped a couple of percentage points.
I understand it is a nice dream to have, but the only thing accomplished by forwarding such e-mails is to make fools of you, and to clog up the Internet. Now let’s all try to earn an honest living and not hope for one of these get REAL rich REAL quick scams to save us!