MSN & Hotmail will stay Free

Did you get one of those chain messages about Microsoft going to charge users for using MSN and Hotmail? Well I got 2 of those. And it is quite obvious that it’s a spam mail. What really is surprising that a lot of people took it seriously and followed the instructions that was in the email.

Wondering what was written in the email?

Hey, people.

Sorry to break the news, but looks like all of those warnings were real!
The use of MSN and e-mail will cost money from Summer 2007 onwards. If you
Send this message to 18 different people from your list, your little MSN
Icon will turn blue and that will make it free for you. If you don’t believe
Me, go on to (www.msn.com) and see it yourself. Don’t forward this message,
But copy and paste it so that people will actually read it.

It is Andy and John – the directors of MSN – sorry for the interruption, but
MSN is really closing down. This is because too many inconsiderate people
Are taking up all the names (e.g.. Making up lots of different accounts for
Just one person), and we are only left with 578 names.

If you would like to close your account, DO NOT SEND THIS MESSAGE ON. But,
If you would like to keep your account, then SEND THIS MESSAGE TO EVERYONE
ON YOUR CONTACT LIST. This is no joke, as we Will be shutting down the
Servers. Send it on, thanks.

WHOEVER DOES NOT SEND THIS MESSAGE, YOUR ACCOUNT WILL BE CLOSED AND IT WILL
COST YOU 100.00 (pending) A MONTH TO USE. SEND THIS TO EVERYONE ON YOUR
CONTACT LIST. NOW YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO. PLEASE DO NOT FORWARD THIS OR REPLAY.
COPY THE WHOLE E-MAIL. RETURN TO YOUR INBOX AND CLICK ON NEW. THEN PASTE
‘THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION’.

Hey everyone, I don’t normally send this sort of stuff out, but I had a Look
on the Internet and its actually true that by the 30th November, we Will
have to pay for the use of our MSN and e-mail account(s), unless we Send
this message to at least 18 contacts on our contact list. It’s no joke, but
if you don’t believe me, then you can see for yourself -Go to the site
(http://news.BBC.co.UK/1/hi/business/1189119.stm) – and See For yourself.

Anyway, once you’ve sent this message to at least 18 contacts, your MSN icon
Will turn blue. Please copy and paste, but don’t forward it, as people won’t
Take notice of it.

Microsoft was actually planning to charge surfers for the improved services of its MSN portal in 2001. But, they planned on keeping Hotmail a free service. Eventually Microsoft cancelled this plan when they thought of loosing to their competitors Yahoo! and AOL.

I am guessing that this chain message started spreading in 2001 when Microsoft was planning to do so. And that message is still being forwarded while it is 2007. I would suggest that if you receive one of those messages then delete it.