Dear Postmaster, Below the `======' separator below I am including for your information a newsgroup posting which was posted to the newsgroups contained in the headers. This posting is completely inappropriate to the newsgroup where I saw it. I hope the information in the newsgroup headers allows you to determine who is responsible. Such off-topic postings annoy me (and certainly many others as well), are a broach of `netiquette', probably represent abuse of priviledges on the part of the sender, and can even be illegal. I therefore ask that you take appropriate action to assure that this doesn't happen again, including, if you deem appropriate, revoking the account of the person in question. If I continue to receive unsolicited email from this address, I will take legal action. I have a legal costs insurance which covers ALL costs, worldwide, and I will not hesitate to make use of it. All the information I have on this point is contained in the newsgroup headers, but nevertheless feel free to contact me if you wish. Please excuse this message if I have contacted you by mistake; this sometimes happens when the headers have been forged so that the origin of the posting is (intentionally) obscured. Here's some general information on such schemes: > Subject: Re: $$$ CASH $$$ > From: rscott@fcc.com (R. Scott Perry) > Organization: Computerized Horizons > > Not only are chain letters illegal in the U.S. (2 year jail term for > first offence, see below), they CAN NOT WORK. There would have to be > over 1,000,000,000,000 people participating for them to work. Here's > PROOF: > > --- > > The chain letters claim that you will make at least $10,000 (often they > claim $20,000 or $50,000), by people sending you $1 bills. > > If the person who originally wrote the chain letter made $10,000 off of > it, then there are at least 10,000 people who have joined so far. That's > obvious; if someone made $10,000 from people sending him $1, then 10,000 > people have joined so far. > > In order for each of those 10,000 people to make $10,000, there would > need to be 100,000,000 people joining (10,000 people already in the > program, each causing another 10,000 to join; 10,000 times 10,000 is > 100,000,000). That, too, is quite obvious. > > So, if you saw this chain letter and joined it, according to the way the > chain letter claims it works, there would be 100,000,000 other people > joining. For all of you to make your $10,000, you would each need to > cause another 10,000 people to sign up. How many are we at now? It's > simple: 100,000,000 people times 10,000 new people each. That's > 1,000,000,000,000 (1 trillion) people joining. That's about 200 times as > many people as there are on this planet. > > Now do you understand why chain letters won't work? > > --- > > Chain letters are illegal if the chain letter or money is transferred > via U.S. Mail, and can get you a $1,000 fine and a 2 YEAR jail sentence > for your first offense. The second offence can get you in jail for > 5 years. Even if transmitted via the Internet, they violate Title 18 > USC Section 1302, the Postal Lottery Statute. For verification, you > can currently go to > > http://www.usps.gov/websites/depart/inspect/chainlet.htm > > to see that it is illegal, and go to > > http://www.usps.gov/websites/depart/inspect/usc18/lottery.htm > > for the text of the law). > > --- > > Feel free to copy this in response to any chain letters you see, > hopefully as enough people see this, the chain letters will stop. > -Scott Sincerely, Phillip Helbig -- Kapteyn Instituut Email .............. helbig@astro.rug.nl Rijksuniversiteit Groningen Tel. ................... +31 50 363 6647 Postbus 800 Fax .................... +31 50 363 6100 NL-9700 AV Groningen Web ... http://www.astro.rug.nl/~helbig/ ******************************** formerly at ******************************** this will still work for a while -----> Email ......... p.helbig@jb.man.ac.uk University of Manchester Tel. ... +44 1477 571 321 (ext. 2635) Jodrell Bank Observatory Fax ................ +44 1477 571 618 Macclesfield Telex ................ 36149 JODREL G UK-Cheshire SK11 9DL Web ... http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/~pjh/ My opinions are not necessarily those of either of the above institutes. ===============================================================================