Free Beer

Hello: We here at Miller Brewing Company, Inc. would like to help bring in the new millennium for everyone. We like to think of ourselves as a progressive company, keeping up with our customers. We have found the best way to do this via the Internet and email. Combining these things, we would like to make a special offer to our valued customers: If this email makes it to 2,000,000 people by 12:00 PM on New Year's Eve of 1999, we will send a coupon for one six-pack of any of our Miller Brand beverages. In the event that 2,000,000 people are reached, our tracker/counter, embedded in this message, will report to us with the list of names and email addresses. Thereafter, each email address will be sent an electronic coupon which you can print out and redeem at any Miller Brand beverage carrying store. The coupons will be sent as soon as 2,000,000 people are reached, so the sooner, the better. Enjoy, and Cheers,

Gary D. Anderson, Chief Marketing Director Miller Brewing Company, Inc. http://www.millerbrewing.com

Guide's note: Before you hit that "Send" button, stop and ask yourself how the Miller Brewing Company is going to track and record 2 million email forwards. For that matter, ask yourself why they'd go to all that trouble and expense just to give away 2 million six-packs of beer.

This is a good old-fashioned something-for-nothing chain letter. A hoax. Its only real purpose is to get itself replicated as far and wide as possible. Some anonymous prankster sent this out, not the Miller Brewing Company.

The email tracking gimmick – an utter fiction – ought to ring familiar from theWalt Disney Jr. chain letter of last year. If a "tracker/counter" is embedded in this message, I'd like someone to explain to me how and where.