posted on June 14, 2002 02:27:31 PM
THIS IS SOME VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION THAT I RECEIVED THIS MORNING
FROM A CO-WORKER AND I AM FORWARDING IT ON TO YOU.
Postage will go up the end of June 2002 from 34 cents to 37 cents. It
will be from 9% to 12% rate increase.
But this isn't all. No more free E-mail! We knew this was coming - Bill
602P will permit the Federal Government to charge a 5-cent charge on
every Delivered E-mail.
Please read the following carefully if you intend to stay online and
continue using E-mail. The last few months have revealed an alarming
trend in the Government of the United States attempting to quietly push
through legislation that will affect our use of the Internet.
Under proposed legislation, the US Postal Service will be attempting to
bill E-mail users out of "alternative postage fees." Bill 602P will
permit the Federal Government to charge a 5-cent surcharge on every e-mail
delivered, by billing Internet Service Providers at source. The consumer
would then be billed in turn by the ISP.
Washington DC lawyer Richard Stepp is working without pay to prevent
this legislation from becoming law. The US Postal Service is claiming lost
revenue, due to the proliferation of E-mail, is costing nearly
$230,000,000 in revenue per year. You may have noticed their recent ad campaign:
"There is nothing like a letter."
Since the average person received about 10 pieces of E-mail per day in
1998, the cost of the typical individual would be an additional 50 cents
a day or over $180 per year -- above and beyond their regular Internet
costs.
Note that this would be money paid directly to the US Postal Service for
a service they do not even provide. The whole point of the Internet is
democracy and noninterference. You are already paying an exorbitant
price for snail mail because of bureaucratic inefficiency.
It currently takes up to 6 days for a letter to be delivered from coast
to coast. If the US Postal Service is allowed to tinker with E-mail it will
mark the end of the "free" Internet in the United States. Congressional
representative, Tony Schnell (R) has even suggested a "$20-$40 per month
surcharge on all Internet service" above and beyond the governments
proposed E-mail charges. Note that most of the major newspapers have
ignored the story the only exception being the Washingtonian which
called the idea of E-mail surcharge "a useful concept who's time has come"
(March 6th, 1999 Editorial). Do not sit by and watch your freedom erode away!
Send this E-mail to EVERYONE on your list, and tell all your friends and
relatives to write their congressional representative and say "NO" to
Bill 602P. It will only take a few moments of your time and could very well
be instrumental in killing a bill we do not want. PLEASE FORWARD!
posted on June 14, 2002 03:52:07 PM
It does show how incredibly naive people are and how easy it is to scam them. New laptop computer for $400, just wire money to Romania.
Felix will then send you your new laptop computer!
posted on June 14, 2002 08:29:14 PM
I have been on the internet for abour 4 years now and have heard about this "email surcharge" twice in that time. Any Congressman or Senator that votes for this would be out of a job at the end of his/her term.
The eBay Outlook is a great place to discuss eBay auction related topics!
posted on June 14, 2002 08:29:36 PM
<<Just dreaming here, but if it weren't a hoax it might be a way to cut out some spam.>>
Actually, it wouldn't cut out spam. Japan has a huge problem with this. In Japan, a high proportion of people get their E-mail via mobile devices (with a phone number). They get charged by their provider per message. Many Japanese pay $10.00 - $30.00 per month just for their spam.
Even worse, you don't need an E-mail address to spam them, just their phone number. And, every Japanese has a permanent 9(?) digit number. Many spammers simply generate these numbers randomly (or sequentially) and send off their spam. This causes a huge bouncing around of undelivered E-mail, too. Many ISP's have crashed for days as these pile up. It is a mess.
posted on June 14, 2002 08:34:09 PM
...and if you believe that one, I've got some Nigerian investors ready to deposit millions into your checking account upon confirmation of your bank account number.
posted on June 14, 2002 10:00:51 PM
I have 40 acres of land in AZ right on I 40 that I will sell you for $10.00/acre, this includes the rattlers, scorpions, but no water or power. The view is wonderful. You can see miles & miles of nothing for miles & miles
posted on June 14, 2002 11:01:12 PM
We have a program were you can make a one time purchase for a code (example sleks234533lks###we098) and if you put that code on your emails you won't get charged.
Email me if you are interested. I can get you one of these codes. Imagine how fast 5 cents an email is going to add up. This one time fee is sort of steep but the code never expires and you can let your friends use it. I makes a great gift for family members. I need either cash or a money order, and you'll have to mail it to me in Romania or our branch office in Indoniesia.
These free email codes will be doubling in price soon so don't hesitate to contact me.
posted on June 14, 2002 11:49:40 PM
JinkiesVelma,
Any image, either JPG or GIF can be copied with a right button mouse click. You can save it in a directory or to your desktop. You can upload it to your ISP free storage or a free site like www.boomspped.com . From there you can use it anywhere on the web.
To use it here at AW you use the [img*] & [/img*] brackets with the *'s removed. You place the url of the web hosting site/image name in between the 2 bracketed command with the [/img*] command always last. You may borrow my file location as it is free to me.
So to place this felix from my free hosting site on these boards you type [img*]http://www.boomspeed.com/bidsbids/felix.gif[/img*] ( note: you must omit the use of the * characters - they are used to not activate the code on the message boards to show you how to type it out.
posted on June 15, 2002 06:37:08 AM
the best one I ever got was forwarded by a colleague who I had previously believed to have a brain....It seems that Cracker Barrell was willing to give away 50 dollars worth of their meat-and-cheese-like products to anyone who would forward their message to 9 friends, and then somehow mysteriously receive a coupon that they could take to a store to redeem for summer beef lumps or cheese balls or whatever. I used a hotmail address and sent this back to her:
Cracker Barrel Gift Certificate Program:
Dear internet savvy shopper: Congratulations!! Your e-mail forwards to your friends have resulted in your qualifying for our 50 dollar gift promotion program. Through the mysterious magic of the Internet, we have tracked your forwarding habits and know for a fact that you actually did forward this to at least 9 people. We even know who you sent it to and exactly when, although we are not at liberty to explain exactly HOW we know that, what with terrorists behind every door and all. Here's all you have to do to receive your prize:
1. Place a 10 dollar bill into an envelope and mail it without delay to:
Occupant
my address went here
don't forget to remind your friends to do this too. Jennifer K., of Dacron Ohio failed to mail her 10 dollars. Two days later her dog was hit by a car, she lost her job at the yarn mill and her husband Jerry ran off with a waitress named Ruby from the Cup O'Fat Burger Hut, where he had been seen (mysteriously) spending a lot of time over the last 5 years.
2. Go to the nearest Cracker Barrell kiosk point of sale CyberCheese Kart..we have determined (using sophisticated methods unavailable to those who eat grocery store cheese) that the nearest CyberKart is in Metrocenter Mall, Phoenix. Identify yourself to the high school girl cheese consultant by saying the CyberPhrase
"I'll forward anything if there might be a buck in it"
she will then ask you for your code number, which is:
1234567891010987654321ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
Your process will then be complete and you will have 50 dollars off the purchase of any of our delightful, savory Summer Meatlike Logs and super healthy Free Range Cheese-Food-Substance Balls, which can be had in a variety of entertaining shapes and come packed in cheery Limited Edition Holiday Collectible Tins.
Thanks again for helping us get the word out about CRACKER BARREL to all the bumpkins and rubes in your rural area!!
sorry for the length of this, and just to remain on topic, how do you spell ebay? Is it EBAY, Ebay, EBAY, eBAY, E-BAY, E-bay or what exactly??
