Merhaba,

Ya su forward'ladigin insanlarin listesinde mailda belirtilen cyberprom... adli e-mail adresi yok. Herhangi bir cevap aldin mi?

Aslinda bu tur mektuplara inanmamalisin, cunku mesela gercek olsaydi bu sirket direk iflas ederdi. Nasil mi? Cok basit. Diyelim ben basladim Stanford'da bir who yaptim (unixte). Who'dan cikan tum e-mail adreslerini de buraya ekledim. Stanford'da 15 bin ogrenci var, hmm sanirim 15010 CDm oldu. Tamam bu abarti ama sunu da deneyebilirsin: Gir hotmail'le, yahoo'ya, excite'a vs.vs. Buralarda kendine abuk subuk bir suru account ac, o accountlara maili forwardla. Yasasin bir suru CDm oldu. Ayrica adamlarin senin kimlere forwardladigini tespit etmeleri nerdeyse imkansiz (pratik olarak). Burada belki gercek olabilecek tek sey cyberprom... adli e-mail adresine yolladigin kopya karsiligi 10 CD alabilmen. Ama bu durumda da sirket gene iflas eder cunku yukarda yazdigim gibi ben simdi girip hotmail, yahoo, ieee ve stanford accountlarimin dordunden de cevap yazsam 40 CDm olur. :)

Simdi yahoo'dan cyber promotions diye bir search yapinca karsimiza bir suru sey cikar. Ancak biraz eleme yapip gercek sitelere ulasmaya calisirsak, mesela http://www.cauce.org/ gibi bir adrese gidebiliriz. Burasi The Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email adli gonullulerden kurulmus bir orgut. Amaci bu tur olaylari durdurmak. (Bunlara spamming deniyor.) Bu adresten sanirim daha fazla bilgi elde edilebilirsin.

Bu tur olaylardan korunmak icin, cesitli e-mail firmalarinin bazi filter'lari var (mesela yahoo-mail'in boyle bir seyi olduguna eminim). Ancak bunlar cozum degil, onemli olan boyle bir mektubu alinca ona inanip inanmamak konusunda kalbimizi degil, beynimizi dinlemek. Cok inandirici gorunen bir mektupta bile bir search engine'le (mesela yahoo, altavista vs.) kucuk bir arama yapip ondan sonra hareket etmek. Neyse cok uzun bir mektup oldu. Tabii boylesi hos bir onerinin gercek olmasini ben de dilerim. Eger gercekten bir cevap alabilirsen (bu konuda da otomatik cevap veren bilgisayarlara dikkat), lutfen haber ver, boylece kaybettigim CD sansini belki tekrar yakalayabilirim... :)

Sevgiler,

Veysi Erkcan Ozcan, aka. Erik
Research Assistant
Stanford University
Department of Applied Physics
 

PS: www.columiahouse.com 'da ilginc free CD offerlari var, ama bunlarda da aslinda bir miktar para istiyorlar ve de shipping and handling icin de aslinda para aliyorlar sanirim... :)
PS2: Bu mektubu mantikli buluyorsaniz, size yollayanlara da ulastirin...
PS3: Asagi bu mektubun Ingilizce versiyonun altinda adi gecen chain mail'i bulabilirsiniz...

Basic English version:

First of all, let me start by using my UNIX account here at Stanford University. A simple who command if used properly will give me the email addresses of 15000 students in here. I will just forward that message to all these people and oops, I will have 15010 free CDs... Obviously such there will be people like me around, and it is sure that this promotion company will go bankrupt.

Actually, it is quite impossible on the net to figure out whoever you sent a given message (practically, of course it's theoretiaclly possible). So let us assume that they only give only 10CDs to a given person and the additional ones is just a small lie to let the mail go round. Even in this case the prom. company will directly go bankrupt. How? Simple: I have e-mail accounts on yahoo, hotmail, IEEE and Stanford. From each of these accounts, I may forward the mail to have 40CDs directly for free. If I want more, I can just open up new accounts on the net (since they are completely free and there are so many sites providing e-mail accounts), and vaow, I get 10 free CDs for each account I've signed in.

You see, such chain-mails make no sense at all. Actually if you go to a search engine like yahoo and do a small search on cyber promotions, you may end up in some sites that actually oppose these kinds of junk mails (by the way, this is called spamming). And some e-mail providers have some filters that stop these things (I am sure that yahoo-mail has it for instance). But as for one, I myself believe that it is not possible to stop these things by using such things. The more efficient way is to think about them I little before forwarding them, or do a little search on the internet to see if there are real companies who are supporting these. (For instance there are interesting offers on www.columbiahouse.com - they even claim to give some CDs for free if you pay shipping and handling and some small subscription fee etc.)

As a result, I didn't forward that mail to anyone, and I probably lost my chance to win a few free CDs. But if you get them, or hear about someone who really gets them, please send me an email. Then I will just apologize for what I have written and may be try my own chance. Otherwise, if you think that this letter makes some sense, please send it to other people as well.... :)

Thanks for reading so long and nice to meet you. Have a happy new year,

Veysi Erkcan OZCAN
Research Assistant
Stanford University
Dept. of Applied Physics &
Stanford Linear Accelerator Center

Fowarded message attached below

Objet: Columbia House

Hi. My name is Richard Douche. I am the president of
the Cyber Promotions for Columbia House. We are in a
fierce competition with companies such as Amazon.com
and Music Blvd, among many others.  Because of this, I
have been authorized to offer 10+ free cd's of your
choice to any person who participates in our promotion.
We at Columbia House understand that your time is very
important to you, and that you don't want to have to
fill out a form and mail it to us. With this in mind,
we have developed a simplistic way for anyone who
receives this email to participate.  All you have to
do is send this message on to your friends! Yes, it is
that simple.  Now you are wondering how many CDs you
get, and how to get them. It all depends on how many
people you send this message to. You are required to
send this email to the address below to receive your
first 10 CDs.  Cyberpromotions@n2music.com
In addition, you get another CD for every person you
forward this to.  For example, if you send this to
Cyber Promotions, along with 10 of your friends, you
would receive a total of 20 CDs.  Remember to send
this to Cyber Promotions or you WON'T RECEIVE YOUR
CDS!! We will email you back promptly asking for your CD
selections.  Again, thank you for your participation!!

Richard Douche
President, Cyber Promotions