MSN email account holders

loobyloo80

I received this email from a friend today who had allegedly received it from MSN Hotmail. Can anyone shed any light on it-sounds very dodgy to me but I can't see the benefit of it at all ?
Thanks in advance,
Looby:A

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 ?0.00 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 THANK
YOU FOR
YOUR ATTENTION On the 30th 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

superscaper

Why would anyone fall for this? I can't believe it's STILL going around after all these years. It's a scam, I hope you don't forward it to anyone.

superscaper

For future reference, if you get ANYTHING as an email forward from someone you know rather than directly from a company it is fake 100% of the time. And not much of a friend for lying to you and claiming they recieved it from hotmail themselves. If you doubt me, check any urban myth or critical thinking website. Even the link it gives had nothing to do with closing MSN and is six years old!!!

loobyloo80

I don'y have a hotmail account so won't be forwarding this on but a friend of mine sent it as it requested she should, I don't know what email address it originally came from. Before I reply to her I wanted some more info, what could they hope to gain from this ?? I really don't see the benefit !
Thanks for you reply earlier tho, it looked really amatuer but it's nice to have it confirmed.
Looby

superscaper

Although I do commend you for actually asking on here about it rather than idiotically forwarding without any thought whatsoever like so many do. I think this kind of spam from my friends and people I know is probably the worst because I can't block it.

loobyloo80

what's the scam tho ???

superscaper

loobyloo80 wrote: »

I don'y have a hotmail account so won't be forwarding this on but a friend of mine sent it as it requested she should, I don't know what email address it originally came from. Before I reply to her I wanted some more info, what could they hope to gain from this ?? I really don't see the benefit !
Thanks for you reply earlier tho, it looked really amatuer but it's nice to have it confirmed.
Looby

I guess it's the same mentality as any chain letter. There's not usually any profit in it, just trying to spread the things as wide as possible so it almost has a life of it's own. What gets me is that any amount of logical thought and examination should show these type of emails (and actual snail mail chain letters) are just a load of rubbish. Doesn't say much for the intelligence of the country unfortunately.

loobyloo80

I'm actually really suprised at her she is very intelligent and cynical ! She's a teacher and not daft-she said this is definatetly not a joke in her email.
The punctuation and informal writing, mixture of capslocks and general bad english stood out a mile.
I guess if there's no gain for them then theres no panic really, I shall inform her that it is a hoax tho.
Thanks for your time.
Looby

MadCowMan

You'll also notice that BBC news article is dated 2001