"Make money fast" was a title of an electronically forwarded chain letter which became so famous that the term is now used to describe all sorts of chain letters forwarded over the Internet, by e-mail spam or Usenet newsgroups. In anti-spammer slang, the name is often abbreviated "MMF". A typical chain letter consists of a message that attempts to induce the recipient to make a number of copies of the letter and then pass them on to two or more new recipients. ... A typical spam advertisement Spam by e-mail is a type of spam that involves sending identical or nearly identical messages to thousands (or millions) of recipients. ... Usenet is a distributed Internet discussion system that evolved from a general purpose UUCP network of the same name. ...

History

The original "Make Money Fast" letter was written in 1988. In that year, a student named David Rhodes (or "Dave Rhodes," which he used as his Internet name) at Columbia Union College wrote a text file chain letter entitled "Make Money Fast", and uploaded it to nearest BBS systems. The scam soon reached the Internet, where it was forwarded over email and Usenet. The chain mail scheme continued, passed from person to person, though it wasn't until spamming became a major problem in early-to-mid 1994 that "Make money fast" exploded. 1988 is a leap year starting on a Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Columbia Union College is a liberal arts college located in Takoma Park, Maryland, USA. It is affiliated with the Seventh-day Adventist Church. ... A typical chain letter consists of a message that attempts to induce the recipient to make a number of copies of the letter and then pass them on to two or more new recipients. ... A bulletin board system or BBS is a computer system running software that allows users to dial into the system over a phone line and, using a terminal program, perform functions such as downloading software and data, uploading data, playing games, reading news, and exchanging messages with other users. ... A KMail folder full of spam emails collected over a few days. ... 1994 was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International year of the Family. ...

The text of "Make money fast" originally claimed to be "perfectly legal." It encouraged readers of the email to forward one dollar to a list of people provided in the text, and to add their own name and address to the bottom of the list. Using the theory behind pyramid schemes, the resulting chain of money flowing back and forth would supposedly deliver a reward of thousands of dollars to the ones participating in the chain, as copies of their chain spread and more and more people sent one dollar to their address. A pyramid scheme is a non-sustainable business model that involves the exchange of money primarily for enrolling other people into the scheme, usually without any product or service being delivered. ...

In fact, the idea of a money-forwarding email letter turned out to be worthless. When the popularity of the Internet exploded in the mid-1990s, millions of copies of "Make money fast" were forwarded to unsuspecting Internet users by thousands of different persons. It became one of the most annoying and persistent spams in existence. Events and trends The 1990s are generally classified as having moved slightly away from the more conservative 1980s, but keeping the same mind-set. ...

Variations on "Make money fast" have evolved, usually by spammers who change the subject of their email to "This really works!," "Try it, it works!," or "You are a winner!"

MMF parodies

The chain letters follow a rigidly predefined format or template with only minor variations (such as claiming to be from an retired lawyer or claiming to be selling "reports" in order to attempt to make the scheme appear lawful). Very quickly they become repetitive, causing them to be bait for widespread satire or parody. Satire is a literary technique of writing or art which principally ridicules its subject (for example, individuals, organizations, or states) often as an intended means of provoking or preventing change. ...

In some cases, the parodies have been mistaken as being real (and the original posters mailbombed or reported for net.abuse) by readers who stop at the words "My name is Dave Rhodes..." (or Pave Roades) and read no further. A mailbomb (or mail bomb), also called parcel bomb or letter bomb, is an explosive device sent via the postal service, and designed to explode when opened, injuring or killing the recipient, usually someone the sender has a personal grudge against, or more indiscriminately as part of a terrorist campaign. ...

They then react without noticing the various other telltale parody clues such as "Dear Fiend, My name is Slave Rhodes. In September 1988 my karma was reposessed and the dog pound was hounding me like you wouldn't believe. I was sacked for incompetence and drug abuse and my reality check had bounced. The only escape I had from the pressure of idiotic failure was my computer and my modem..." The word slaves has several meanings and usages: People who are owned by others, and live to serve them without pay. ... September is the ninth month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of four Gregorian months with the length of 30 days. ... 1988 is a leap year starting on a Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Karma (Sanskrit: कर्म), or Kamma (Pali) is a sanskrit word and a concept of relgions born in India (eastern religions), meaning action, effect, destiny. ... Animal shelters or (dog) pounds are either governmental or private organizations that provide temporary homes for stray or surrendered pet animals, most often dogs and cats, until the animal is reclaimed by the owner, adopted to a new owner, placed with another organization, or euthanized. ... An individual can face termination of employment, or job loss, for one of many reasons. ... Incompetence is the condition of a person who is unable to properly perform his assigned duty. ... This article is actively undergoing a major edit. ... Pressure is the application of force to a surface, and the concentration of that force in a given area. ... In medicine and psychology, an idiot is a person with a very severe mental retardation or a very low IQ level. ... Failure in general refers to the state or condition of not meeting a desirable or intended objective. ... A modem (a portmanteau word constructed from modulator and demodulator) is a device that modulates an analog carrier signal (sound), to encode digital information, and that also demodulates such a carrier signal to decode the transmitted information. ...

One claiming to be the first such chain letter (http://www.netfunny.com/rhf/jokes/98/Mar/makeclubs.html) claims that palaentologists recently deciphered the following, painted on a cave wall on the slopes of Kilimanjaro: "MAKE SPIKY CLUBS FAST!!! Hello, not-tribe-member. Urk name Urk. Many moons ago, Urk in bad way. Urk kicked out of cave by Thag. Thag bigger than Urk, Thag take Urk spiky club, Urka (Urk wo-man). Urk not able kill deer, must eat leaves, berries. Urk flee from wolves. Today, Urk big chief. Urk have best cave, many wives, many spiky clubs. Urk tell how. WHAT DO: make one spiky club and take to cave places below. Add own cave place to bottom of list, take cave place off top. Put new message on walls many caves. Wait. Many clubs soon come! This not crime! Urk ask shaman, gods say okay..." A paleontologist carefully chips rock from a column of dinosaur vertebrae. ... Decipherment is the analysis of documents written in ancient languages, where the language is unknown, or knowledge of the language has been lost. ... Alternate meanings: Cave (disambiguation) The outside world viewed from a cave A cave is a natural underground void large enough that some portion of it will not receive daylight. ... Kilimanjaro is a mountain in northeastern Tanzania. ... ǎ This article is on the social structure. ... Crust composition Oxygen 43% Silicon 21% Aluminium 10% Calcium 9% Iron 9% Magnesium 5% Titanium 2% Nickel 0. ... A club (in Greek usually: Mupia, in Latin sodalitas) consists of an association of people not united together by any natural ties of kinship, real or supposed. ... In botany, a leaf is an above-ground plant organ specialized for photosynthesis. ... Several types of berries from the market, but none of these are true berries. ... Binomial name Canis lupus Linnaeus, 1758 The Grey Wolf (Canis lupus), also known colloquially as just the wolf, is a mammal of the Canidae family and the ancestor of the domestic dog. ... Chief can refer to The chief engineer of a naval vessel or anyone with the rank Chief Warrant Officer in the Canadian Forces In heraldry, a chief is a band of colour or metal making up the top (usually the top third or slightly less) of a shield. ... Marriage is a relationship that plays a key role in the definition of many families. ... In computer science, a list is an abstract concept denoting an ordered collection of fixed-length entities. ... Message in its most general meaning is the object of communication. ... The shaman is an intellectual and spiritual figure who is regarded as possessing power and influence on other peoples in the tribe and performs several functions, primarily that of a healer ( medicine man). The shaman provides medical care, and serves other community needs during crisis times, via supernatural means (means... The term God is used to designate a Supreme Being; however, there are countless definitions of God. ...

Most parodies, like the original, closely follow the same textual structure:

The hard-luck and rags-to-riches story

Almost universally, these will begin by claiming to have been poor and to have received a large quantity of some item of value.

Originally the poster claimed to have received money ($50000 according to the original Dave Rhodes spam), but parodies often change this to obtaining something, anything else for basically nothing, for instance: All the big money Ive made while editing Wikipedia. ...

• Make Monkeys Fast (http://www.cgl.uwaterloo.ca/~smann/Humor/MMF/monkey.txt) substitutes silverbacks for greenbacks, claiming " In September 1998 the bank foreclosed on my zoo's primate house and the bill collectors were hounding me like a pack of angry gorillas. The only escape I had from the pressures of failure and the two dozen assorted hungry primates in my house was my computer and my modem. In January 1999 my family and I went on a ten day trip to Madagascar, studying lemurs. I bought a brand new Lincoln Navigator with CASH in February 1999, just to shuttle the chimps around. I am currently building a new home on the west coast of Florida, with a private monkey house..."

• Make Beer Fast (http://www.textfiles.com/food/get.drunk.cheap) claims "My name is Dave Rhodes. In September 1988 my refrigerator was empty and I was god-awful thirsty. But the only thing I had to quench my thirst was a half-empty can of Meister Brau... This January 1989 my family and I went on a ten-day drinking spree. I bought a Lincoln Town Car and paid with 1200 cases of Guinness. I am currently building a home on the West Coast of Florida, with a private pool (filled with beer), boat slip, and a beautiful view of the bay from my breakfast room table and patio, all out of emptied beer bottles. I will never have to go to the liquor store again..."

• In one one-time offer (http://www.baetzler.de/humor/one_time_offer.html) "A genie appeared. He told me he had come to make me an AMAZING, INCREDIBLE, ONE TIME OFFER! All I had to do was piss people off and for every person who started to hate me a nickel would fall out of my arse" (and presumably, for every person *they* annoy, you get a penny)

• Other variants offer to make cloves fast (http://www.obscure.org/~vlad/gothic/cloves.html) or make LSD fast (http://www.erowid.org/psychoactives/humor/humor_joke5.shtml).

Some also satirise the rags-to-riches stories by blatant exaggeration, like: Species Gorilla gorilla Gorilla beringei The gorilla, the largest of the primates, is a ground-dwelling herbivore that inhabits the forests of central Africa. ... The United States dollar is the official currency of the United States. ... September is the ninth month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of four Gregorian months with the length of 30 days. ... 1998 is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ... The essential function of a bank is to provide services related to the storing of value and the extending of credit. ... A zoo. ... Families 13, See classification A primate is any member of the biological order Primates (Latin primus first), the group that contains all lemurs, monkeys, apes, and humans. ... Type species Gorilla gorilla Western Gorilla Species Gorilla gorilla Gorilla beringei The gorilla, the largest of the primates, is a ground-dwelling herbivore that inhabits the forests of central Africa. ... Hunger is applied literally to the need or craving for food; it can also be applied metaphorically to cravings of other sorts. ... January is the first month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of seven Gregorian months with the length of 31 days. ... 1999 is a common year starting on Friday of the Common Era, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... Superfamilies and Families Cheirogaleoidea Cheirogaleidae Lemuroidea Lemuridae Lepilemuridae Indridae Lemurs are part of a class of primates known as prosimians, and make up the infraorder Lemuriformes. ... February is the second month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1999 is a common year starting on Friday of the Common Era, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... Species Pan troglodytes Pan paniscus Chimpanzees, also called chimps, are the common name for two species in the genus Pan. ... September is the ninth month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of four Gregorian months with the length of 30 days. ... 1988 is a leap year starting on a Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The inside of a fridge A refrigerator (often shortened to fridge) or freezer is an electric appliance that uses refrigeration to help preserve food. ... Drinking is the act of consuming a liquid through the mouth, almost always largely consisting of water. ... The word drink is primarily a verb, meaning to ingest liquids, see Drinking. ... The Town Car name first appeared in the Lincoln line in 1959, on a special, limousine-like version of the standard Continental. ... See also Guinness Book of Records. ... State nickname: Sunshine State, Everglade State Other U.S. States Capital Tallahassee Largest city Jacksonville Governor Jeb Bush Official languages English Area 170,451 km² (22nd)  - Land 137,374 km²  - Water 30,486 km² (17. ... A boat is a watercraft, usually smaller than most ships. ... Spirits redirects here. ... A store is an enclosure for holding articles. ... In colloquial English, person is often synonymous with human. ... Hate or hatred is an emotion of intense revulsion, distaste, enmity, or antipathy for Jason, Jason, or Jason; a desire to avoid, restrict, remove, or destroy Jason. ... General Name, Symbol, Number nickel, Ni, 28 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 10 , 4, d Density, Hardness 8908 kg/m³, 4. ... Above: A variety of coins considered to be lower-value, including an Irish 2p piece and many US pennies. ...

• My name is Rave Dhodes (http://www.tmk.com/ftp/humor/rave_dhodes.txt) "Until a week ago, I was living on the beach in a shack made entirely from Postum jars, some of which were still half-full of product, which had rotted...the only food I could find for my family to eat was the maggots we picked daily from our open sores--and the winter was coming, which as you may know is a lean time, maggot-wise..."

• "Dear Potential Mark, My name is Lenny Luser. Two years ago, the corporation I worked at for the past twelve years down-sized and my position was eliminated. Since the company was doing pretty well at the time, I think that perhaps my dismissal had something to do with me showing up on the job drunk a few too many times. After unproductive job interviews, I figured human resources people just didn't like to hire someone with a purple mohawk, a criminal record, and a Mötley Crüe tattoo on the forehead. "

or, taken to the opposite extreme: Beach A beach or strand is a geological formation consisting of loose rock particles such as sand, shingle, or cobble along the shoreline of a body of water. ... A shack is a type of small house that is in disrepair. ... A jar is a wide-mouthed container typically made of glass or earthenware designed to hold a fluid. ... This article is about the insect. ... Sore can be: a synonym of pain Sore, Landes, a commune in the Landes département of France This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Winter, 1573. ... Downsizing refers to layoffs initiated by a company in order to cut labor costs by reducing the size of the company. ... A company in the broadest sense is an aggregation of people who stay together for a common purpose. ... This article or section should be merged with intoxication Drunkenness, in its most common usage, is the state of being intoxicated with alcohol (i. ... interview An interview is a conversation between two or more people where questions are asked to obtain information about the interviewee. ... Human Resources has at least two meanings depending on context. ... A criminal record or rap sheet is a generic term used to describe a compiled record of crimes that a person has committed or has allegedly committed. ... Mötley Crüe in 2004 (from the left: Vince Neil, Nikki Sixx, Mick Mars, Tommy Lee) Mötley Crüe (Pronounced Mott-Lee Crew) is an American rock band whose members include Nikki Sixx, Tommy Lee, Mick Mars, and Vince Neil. ... This article is about the tattoo, a design in ink or some other pigment, usually decorative or symbolic, placed permanently under the skin. ... The forehead or brow is the bony vertical part of the head above the eyes. ...

• My name is Mr. Slambook. (http://www.textfiles.com/magazines/SUPERSTUPID/superstupid-07) "The only escape I had from the pressure of failure was my computer, my modem, a bottle of vodka and Oprah. I longed to turn my advocation into my vocation. This January 1994 my family and I went on a weekend sojourn to Coney Island. I bought a Yugo for CASH in February 1994. I am currently building a tree house on the West Coast of Queens, with an above ground pool, a dog house, and a beautiful view of the driveway from my breakfast room table and patio. I will never have to work again. Today I am rich! I have earned over $400.00 (F-O-R-E H-U-N-D-R-E-D D-O-L-L-E-R-S) to date and will become stinking rich within 4 or 5 decades... I have NEVER failed to earn $5 or more whenever I wanted. "

• or "I am actually making money off it. The new twisted instructions call for the recipient to send out 200 further letters with an Australian 5c coin attached to the front page. I've received 5 letters (thanks for the 25 cents)."

or even allude to or mock the eventual fate of the original Dave Rhodes point-blank, as in: Having originated in Poland or Russia, vodka is now drunk around the world. ... The Oprah Winfrey Show is the longest-running daytime television talk show in the United States, and is hosted, produced and owned by Oprah Winfrey. ... January is the first month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of seven Gregorian months with the length of 31 days. ... 1994 was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International year of the Family. ... A family of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso in 1997 A family is a domestic group of people, or a number of domestic groups linked through descent (demonstrated or stipulated) from a common ancestor, marriage or adoption. ... The weekend is a part of the week lasting one or two days in which most paid workers do not work. ... Image of Coney Island (middle left of picture) taken by NASA. The peninsula at right is Rockaway, Queens. ... Yugo. ... February is the second month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1994 was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International year of the Family. ... A tree house is a house that is built among the branches of a mature tree. ... Queens County in New York State Queens, the most ethnically diverse county in the United States, is geographically the largest of the five boroughs of New York City. ... A doghouse (or a kennel) is a small shed, often built in the shape of a little house, in which a dog is kept or can run into for shelter from the elements. ... A driveway is a private road that has a paved or gravel surface. ... Breakfast is a meal, often light, usually eaten in the morning. ... A patio garden is an outdoor garden space generally used for dining or recreation that often adjoins a residence and is typically paved. ... This is a list of decades which have articles with more information about them. ... 1¢ euro coin A coin is generally a piece of hard material, generally metal and usually in the shape of a disc, which is used as a form of money. ... Look up centi- in Wiktionary, the free dictionary For the numerical prefix centi- see Wiktionary. ...

• Get Arrested Fast (http://www.cs.rutgers.edu/~watrous/txt/get.arrested.fast) "Hi, I'm Dave Rhodes, and I'm in jail. Just six months ago, I was in dire financial straits... Then, I hit upon one of the most amazing schemes for making quick money that I had ever thought of...I took out five post office boxes in different cities and made up four other names so that the first five contributions all went to me. To say the least, the response was overwhelming..."

• Make Enemies Fast (http://www.cs.uu.nl/~hansb/makeenemies.html) "My name isn't Dave Rhodes, and I am not a retired attorney, but who cares. I invented a new scheme, which guarantees to work all the time. Use it, and you will never have to work anymore during your entire life. In fact, you will have so many enemies, that nobody ever would consider you for any job of any kind for the rest of your life. A few years ago, I had a nice job with a good income. I owned a beautiful house with a swimming pool (for birds) and hot and cold running water. Now I went bankrupt, and was kicked out of my job. Here is the scheme for archieving the same thing..."

or even: A scheme is a plan or a system of related parts. ... Money is a marketable good or token that acts as a store of value, a medium of exchange and a unit of account. ... Small-town post office and town hall in Lockhart, Alabama A post office is a facility (in most countries, a government one) where the public can purchase postage stamps for mailing correspondence or merchandise, and also drop off or pick up packages or other special-delivery items. ... Fundraising is the term referring to the process of soliciting and gathering money by requesting donations from individuals, businesses, charitable foundations, or governmental agencies. ... A response is the following: Often a response is the result of a stimulus. ... An attorney is someone who represents someone else in the transaction of business: For attorney-at-law, see lawyer, solicitor, barrister or civil law notary. ... In physics, work is the energy transferred in applying force over a distance. ... Life is a multi-faceted concept. ... An enemy or foe is a relativist term for an entity that is seen as forcefully adverse or threatening. ... Income, generally defined, is the money that is received as a result of the normal business activities of an individual or a business. ... See also list of house types. ... 50 meter indoor swimming pool A swimming pool, swimming bath, or wading pool is an artificially enclosed body of water intended for recreational or competitive swimming, or for other bathing activities that do not involve swimming, e. ... Orders Many - see section below. ... Bankruptcy is a legally declared inability or impairment of ability of an individual or organization to pay their creditors. ...

• "Quickly take your two cents worth and send it to the top name on the list. Delete the top name and add your own to the bottom. Send the letter to as many US government sites as possible, including president@whitehouse.gov, dan.quayle@potatoe.gov and (of course) postmaster@usps.gov. By the miracle of government waste, in no time at all THOUSANDS of postal inspectors, FBI agents and bored meter maids will each be trying to offer you their two cents worth. They may not be polite, but remember that, as a criminal instead of a poor unemployed person, you now have RIGHTS. The results are simply amazing! I live in a Big House now. The government pays for all of my living expenses, which run into several TENS of THOUSANDS of dollars a year. EVERY YEAR! In fact, I'm so rich that I can afford to have a bunch of folks guarding the place around the clock. If I want a slice of bread or a cup of water, they bring it to me without my even having to lift a finger. And the nightlife here is incredible! Bars everywhere! I don't even have to pay a cent for any of it. Many would kill to live like I do now. Many *do* kill to live in a Big House like mine..."

Website Site(Geography) ... President is a title held by many leaders of organizations, companies, universities, and countries. ... Potatoe is a misspelling of the word potato. Although the English plural, potatoes, is spelled with an e, the singular is not; no dictionary considers potatoe to be an acceptable spelling. ... If you are looking for different meanings of this word, see Postmaster (disambiguation) A postmaster is a term used in post offices to denote the head or master of the office. ... The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is a Federal police force which is the principal investigative arm of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). ... A meter maid is a female member of a police traffic control department who issues tickets for parking violations. ... For the direction right, see left and right or starboard. ... A prison is a place in which people are confined and deprived of a range of liberties. ... The dollar is the name of the official currency in several countries, dependencies and other regions (see list below), including the US dollar, the worlds most widely circulated currency (see list below). ... A guard is either a person or an organisation. ... Breads are a group of staple foods prepared by baking, steaming, or frying dough consisting minimally of flour and water. ... Water (from the Old English word wæter) is a colourless, tasteless, and odourless substance that is essential to all known forms of life and is known also as the most universal solvent. ... Fingers of the human left hand The finger is any of the digits of the hand in humans and other species such as the great apes. ... Nightlife is the collective term for any entertainment that is available and more popular from the late evening into the early hours of the morning. ... Bars or bars can be:- Plural of bar. ... Murder is the crime of causing the death of another human being without lawful excuse, and with intent to kill or to cause grievous bodily harm. ...

Various claims to have unsuccessfully tried other schemes

These will usually be envelope stuffing scams (make $3 each stuffing envelopes that companies pay a few cents to have stuffed by machine, send $29.95 for info!), "send $20 for information on how to get rich quick" (the info tells you to run an ad saying "send $20 for information on how to get rich quick...") and the like. Nothing new under the sun. Get-rich-quick schemes promise high rates of return for a small investment. ... A sun is the star at the center of a solar system. ...

Requests to send money or continue the pyramid

Some of these will parody older chain letters asking to be propagated based on superstition or vary this by adding various urban legends such as "Craig Shergold forgot to forward an e-mail titled Join the Crew and was hit with a new FCC modem tax..." Superstition is a set of behaviors that are related to magical thinking, whereby the practitioner believes that the future, or the outcome of certain events, can be influenced by certain specified behaviors. ... Urban legends are a kind of folklore consisting of stories often thought to be factual by those circulating them. ... The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent United States government agency, created, directed, and empowered by Congressional statute. ... A modem (a portmanteau word constructed from modulator and demodulator) is a device that modulates an analog carrier signal (sound), to encode digital information, and that also demodulates such a carrier signal to decode the transmitted information. ... A tax is an involuntary fee paid by individuals or businesses to a state, or to functional equivalents of a state, including tribes, secessionist movements or revolutionary movements. ...

The requests of what to send also tend to be somewhat original:

• One scheme (http://www.westfieldnetwork.com/misc/the_oral_sex_pyramid_scheme.html) requests "Welcome to the world of borderline prostitution! This little business is a little different than most whorehouses. Your services are not given for money, but done for the oral sex you will get in return! 1. IMMEDIATELY travel to the homes of the first 5 (five) names listed below starting at number 1 through number 5. When you arrive, simply give them oral sex. 2. REMOVE the name that appears number 1 on the list. Place your name, address and zip code in the number 10 position..."

• Sock It to Me (http://www.funbureau.com/cgi-bin/pyramid.asp) asks "Take all your unmatched socks, place them in a sturdy envelope and mail them to the participant named as the top of the list. Do not break this chain! You've heard of athlete's foot but you've never experienced Professional Athlete's Foot!"

• one variant Make Penis Fast (http://hive.badmonkey.ca/index.php?topic=funnylikemidgets&page=5) asks the reader to send a certain anatomy part, usually in pieces (ouch!), claiming "you are now in the business of extending penii..."

• or even "bundle up your husband or boyfriend and send him to the woman whose name appears at the top of the list. When your name comes to the top of the list, you will receive 16,377 men - and one of them is bound to be a hell of a lot better than the one you already have. DO NOT BREAK THE CHAIN. HAVE FAITH! One woman broke the chain and got her own sonovabitch back. At the time of writing this letter, a friend of mine had already received 184 men. They buried her yesterday but it took three undertakers 36 hours to get the smile off her face and two days to get her legs together so that they could close the coffin."

Prostitution is the sale of sexual services (examples: oral sex, sexual intercourse) for money. ... Business refers to at least three closely related commercial topics. ... Prostitution is the sale of sexual services (examples: oral sex, sexual intercourse) for money. ... Oral sex consists of all those sexual activities that involve the use of the mouth, tongue, etc. ... Travel is the transport of people on a trip or journey. ... The SOCKS Protocol is an Internet protocol that allows client-server applications to transparently use the services of a network firewall. ... Athletes foot is a fungal infection of the skin, usually between the toes, caused by parasitic fungi. ... Anatomical drawing of the human muscles from the Encyclopédie. ... Marriage is a relationship that plays a key role in the definition of many families. ... Alternate meanings: Boyfriend (disambiguation) A boyfriend is a male partner in a non-marital romantic relationship. ... This page has been protected from editing to deal with vandalism. ... This article concerns how a man differs from women. ... A chain can be any of the following: Look up Chain in Wiktionary, the free dictionary a flexible connection through multiple rigid links; applications include: pulling (it cannot be used for pushing) power transmission, as in roller chains (e. ... Writing is a process which may refer to two activities: the inscribing characters on a medium, with the intention of forming words and other lingual constructs that represent language and record information, or the creation of information to be conveyed through written language. ... This article is about the vocation of a mortician and the death metal band; for the World Wrestling Entertainment superstar, see The Undertaker. ... Smile (album), for the musical, see Smile (Musical) and for the bank, see smile (bank) Smile was also the name of the band later known as Queen. ... In an extended sense, a leg is any part of an object that supports it off the ground. ... An open coffin A coffin is a box used for the display and burial or cremation of a cadaver. ...

A dubious claim that this is lawful

While the original scams refer to "postal lottery" laws, a "retired lawyer" or selling "reports" and "lists", the parodies are usually a little less subtle: A lottery is a popular form of gambling which involves the drawing of lots for a prize. ...

• One would-be Ponzi (http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Parthenon/7273/ponzi.htm) claim "By the time you have read the enclosed information and looked over the enclosed program and reports, you should have concluded that such a program, and one that is legal (ahem), could not have been created by an amateur. As a matter of fact, it was created by a PROFESSIONAL con man (no amateur there), and if you think this is legal, I've got a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell you. A man named Charles Ponzi cooked up this little baby, decades ago. He sucked up lots of money by bilking the citizens of Boston with his "pyramid" scheme, and when it collapsed (as they always do) lots of people discovered that they basically had flushed their money down the toilet, and Charles Ponzi ended up getting deported -- again. More recently, Albania's economy and civil order collapsed because their leaders concocted a similar scheme, squirreled all the money away overseas, and got out just before the citizens who they had defrauded and impoverished could string them up on light poles like they deserved."

Information is a term with many meanings depending on context, but is as a rule closely related to such concepts as meaning, knowledge, instruction, communication, representation, and mental stimulus. ... Program or Programme can refer to: a computer program a radio program, a television program a collection of managed projects a 12-step program one of the short films in The Animatrix series. ... This article is about law in society. ... The word amateur has at least two connotations. ... A professional works to receive payment for an activity (as a profession), which usually requires expertise and carries with it socially significant mores and folkways. ... A confidence trick, confidence game, or con for short, (also known as a scam) is an attempt to intentionally mislead a person or persons (known as the mark) usually with the goal of financial or other gain. ... This article is about the edifice. ... The Brooklyn Bridge in 1890, seven years after its opening Kings County in New York State Brooklyn is the most populous of the five boroughs of New York City. ... Charles Ponzi (1882–January 18, 1949) was an Italian immigrant to the United States who became one of the greatest swindlers in American history. ... Money is a marketable good or token that acts as a store of value, a medium of exchange and a unit of account. ... Citizenship is membership in a political community (originally a city but now a state), and carries with it rights to political participation; a person having such membership is a citizen. ... Alternative meanings: Boston (disambiguation) The 18th-century Old State House in Boston is surrounded by tall buildings of the 19th and 20th centuries. ... Geometric shape created by connecting a polygonal base to an apex A pyramid is a geometric shape formed by connecting a polygonal base and a point, called the apex, by triangular faces. ... Flush toilet A toilet is a plumbing fixture devised for the disposal of bodily wastes, including urine, feces, penis, semen and vomit. ... Deportation is the expelling of someone from a country. ... Genera Many, see the article Sciuridae. ... Poverty is the state of being without, often associated with need, hardship and lack of resources across a wide range of circumstance. ...

The list of names or addresses

This may claim that originators always place their own names at every list position, for instance: A name is a label for a thing, person, place, product (as in a brand name), and even an idea or concept, normally used to distinguish one from another. ... The word position can have one of several meanings: 2-dimensional or 3-dimensional location; Occupation, Job In finance, a position means entitlement to receive or obligation to deliver an asset or financial instrument, as in long position (ownership) and short position (obligation to deliver); In politics and government a...

• dave.rhodes@make.money.fast
• dave.rhodes@whered.my.net.access.go
• dave.rhodes@this.site.toasted.me.too
• dave.rhodes@send.me.money
• dave.rhodes@goodbye.no.carrier
• dave.rhodes@jail.gov

Another variant is to use fictititious or joke names like: A joke is a short story or short series of words spoken or communicated with the intent of being laughed at or found humorous by the listener or reader. ...

1. Bob Edam, 125 Velveeta Lane, Fondue Lake, Wisconsin 53409
2. Robert Emmental, 127 Velveeta Lane, Fondue Lake, Wisconsin 53409
3. Rob Caithness, 129 Velveeta Lane, Fondue Lake, Wisconsin 53409
4. D. Wensleydale, 131 Velveeta Lane, Fondue Lake, Wisconsin 53409
5. Ralph Cheddar, 133 Velveeta Lane, Fondue Lake, Wisconsin 53409
6. Frank O. American, 135 Velveeta Lane, Fondue Lake, Wisconsin 53409

or: "Quick, write down these names, and replace the top name with your own.

• Sir 617-555-5555
• Joy 231-122-7451
• Cindy 391-342-6422
• Matt 324-634-7345
• Joe 234-546-2344

Then call all of these numbers. Collect."

Alleged testimonials

The testimonials are usually as offbeat as the original schemes, for instance: A testimonial or endorsement is a written or spoken statement, sometimes from a public figure, sometimes from a private citizen, extolling the virtue of some product, which is used in the promotion and advertising of that product. ...

• MMF hall of horror - Maximize Your Dough (http://www.mmfhoh.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=436) - "Yes, you too can be as rich as I am today! Why, just send one granule of flour and one drop of water (and maybe a little sugar, if you're feeling nasty) to each of the 5 people listed below, and in just a few short weeks, you'll be up to your knees in Dough! Can you imagine what 50,000 granules of flour and drops of water looks like on my kitchen table? Well, I can -- AND IT'S A BIG FREAKIN MESS!"

An ingredient used in many foods, flour is a fine powder made from grain or other starchy food sources. ... A sugar is a form of carbohydrate; the most commonly used sugar is a white crystalline solid, sucrose; used to alter the flavor and properties (mouthfeel, preservation, texture) of beverages and food. ... An x-ray of a human knee In human anatomy, the knee is the leg joint connecting the femur and the tibia. ... A kitchen is a room used for food preparation. ...

Dave Rhodes's fate

Dave Rhodes himself served a ten-year sentence in federal prison as a result of "Make money fast." As a condition of his parole, he wrote his own Web site (http://daverhodes.etee2k.net/) denouncing "Make Money Fast".

See also

• chain letters

A typical chain letter consists of a message that attempts to induce the recipient to make a number of copies of the letter and then pass them on to two or more new recipients. ... A KMail folder full of spam emails collected over a few days. ... A typical spam advertisement Spam by e-mail is a type of spam that involves sending identical or nearly identical messages to thousands (or millions) of recipients. ... Messaging spam, sometimes called SPIM, is a type of spam where the target is instant messaging services. ... Newsgroup spam is a type of spamming where the targets are Usenet newsgroups. ... Spamdexing or search engine spamming is the practice of deliberately and dishonestly modifying HTML pages to increase the chance of them being placed close to the beginning of search engine results, or to influence the category to which the page is assigned in a dishonest manner. ... Link spam (also called blog spam or comment spam) is a form of spamming or spamdexing that recently became publicized most often when targeting weblogs (or blogs), but also affects wikis (where it is often called wikispam), guestbooks, and online discussion boards. ... Mobile phone spam is a form of spamming directed at the text messaging service of a mobile phone. ... Spam Telephony (spit) is the VoIP equivalent of unsolicited email — unwanted messages clogging up your voice mail box. ... Advance fee fraud, often also known as the Nigerian money transfer fraud, Nigerian scam or 419 scam after the relevant section of the Nigerian Criminal Code [1] that it violates, is a fraudulent scheme to extract money from investors living in rich countries in Europe, Australia, or North America. ... A lottery scam is a scam email that tells the recipient they have won a sum of money in the lottery. ... In computing, phishing is the act of attempting to fraudulently acquire sensitive information, such as passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy person or business with a real need for such information in a seemingly official electronic notification or message (most often an email, or an instant... Although spamming has existed on the Internet since as early as 1978, the first major spamming incidents didnt take place until the early 1990s. ... E-mail has become the subject of much abuse, in the form of both spamming and E-mail worm programs. ... A DNS-based Blackhole List, or DNSBL, is a means by which an Internet site may publish a list of IP addresses, in a format which can be easily queried by computer programs on the Internet. ...

External links

• Chain letters (http://www.cs.rutgers.edu/~watrous/chain-letters.html)
• Make Money Fast Myth Page (http://www.stopspam.org/usenet/mmf/)
• Hall of Humiliation (http://www.mmfhoh.org/)
• US Postal Inspection Service (http://www.uspis.gov)
• Make Tenure Fast (http://www.falstad.com/cite.html) - Academic parody.
• The Ponzi Pyramid of Power parody (http://ewhac.best.vwh.net/big-money-now/bmn-1.html)
• More (http://www.cgl.uwaterloo.ca/~smann/Humor/MMF/)
• MMF parodies (http://www.netspace.org/~dmacks/pub/MAKE.MONEY.FAST-parodies/)