Make money fast
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Make money fast
"Make money fast" was a title of an electronically
forwarded chain letter which became so famous that the term is now used
to describe all sorts of chain letters forwarded over the Internet, by
e-mail spam or
Usenet
newsgroups. In anti-spammer slang, the name is often abbreviated "MMF".
History
The original "Make Money Fast" letter was written in
1988 by a person
who said his name was Dave Rhodes. Biographical details are not certain -
in fact, it's not clear that this is the person's actual name - but it is often
said Rhodes was a student at
Columbia Union College, a Christian college in Maryland, who wrote a text file
chain letter titled "Make Money Fast", and uploaded it to a nearby BBS. The scam soon reached the Internet, where it was forwarded over e-mail
and Usenet. although it wasn't until
spamming became a major problem in early-to-mid
1994 that "Make
money fast" exploded.
The text of "Make money fast" originally claimed to be "perfectly legal." It
encouraged readers of the email to forward one dollar to a list of people
provided in the text, and to add their own name and address to the bottom of the
list. Using the theory behind
pyramid schemes, the resulting chain of money flowing back and forth would
supposedly deliver a reward of thousands of dollars to the ones participating in
the chain, as copies of their chain spread and more and more people sent one
dollar to their address.
In fact, the idea of a money-forwarding email letter turned out to be
worthless. When the popularity of the Internet exploded in the mid-1990s
(and spamming became a serious problem), literally millions of copies of "Make
money fast" were forwarded to unsuspecting Internet users by thousands of
different persons. It became one of the most annoying and persistent spams in
existence. It was soon decided by anti-spam activists and Internet service
providers alike that "Make money fast" was worthy of being deleted immediately
upon being spotted, and users forwarding the chain letter would swiftly have
their accounts terminated.
Variations on "Make money fast" have evolved, usually by spammers who change
the subject of their email to "This really works!," "Try it, it works!," or "You
are a winner!"
As for Rhodes, details remain elusive. A common tale is that he was sentenced
to ten years in federal prison and wrote his own Web site denouncing "Make Money
Fast" as part of the sentence. References to the site are common online, but the
site itself is believed to be a
hoax.
MMF parodies
The chain letters follow a rigidly predefined format or template with minor
variations (such as claiming to be from a retired lawyer or claiming to be
selling "reports" in order to attempt to make the scheme appear lawful). They
quickly became repetitive, causing them to be bait for widespread
satire or parody. For example, one parody claimed to be the first such chain
letter, saying that palæontologists recently deciphered a statement painted on a
cave wall that
begins "MAKE SPIKY CLUBS FAST!!!
In some cases, the parodies have been mistaken as being real (and the
original posters
mailbombed or reported for net.abuse) by readers who stop at the words "My
name is Dave Rhodes..." and read no further.
Parodies
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