10 Stupid Internet Hoaxes That People Actually Believed
8. Free Money From Bill Gates
Theres a general rule that particularly applies to the internet: if someone is offering you money for nothing, its your bank account they want. The early days of the World Wide Web featured a far lower percentage of net-savvy users though, and scams offering a potential fortune were even more successful than they are today. One of the most common chain emails helped serve to illustrate that you shouldnt always believe what you read. The various emails claimed that Bill Gates was giving away his fortune to lucky internet users, and that all you needed to do was pass on the email to ten other friends! It was purely a hoax, with no scammers gaining money at the end of it, although it did manage to annoy more than a few experienced internet users. The roots of this hoax have been traced back to around 1997, and it still pops up in various forms today through shared Facebook images and links.
