MSN Shutdown Hoax
Summary:Message claims that MSN will be shutting down for a "week or so" to allow problems to be fixed (
Full commentary below.)
Status:False
Example:(Submitted, October 2004)
we are very sorry for the problems that MSN are having but they
will be fixed. MSN will shut down at 12:00 tonight for a week or
so until we can figure out what has been going on. please send
this once again to at least 25 people it doesn't matter if they
are the same people just do it so that we will not shut your
account down thank you
Commentary:
Another apparently unfounded rumour that targets MSN is currently
circulating. The email claims that MSN "will shut down at 12:00
tonight" and will remain shutdown for a "week or so". The message
doesn't specify a date, which means that the deliberately vague
time frame of "tonight" will still appear valid to the unwary
regardless of what date they actually receive it. In fact, this
hoax will probably mutate and keep on making the rounds for
months to come.
There is nothing on the MSN home page about any scheduled shutdown.
In the highly unlikely event that MSN
was actually going to shut
down for a week, I'm sure that they would let their clients know
about it via their home page or other means. Furthermore, any
notification sent by MSN about the shutdown would certainly be a
lot more formal and informative then the silly message quoted
above.
This hoax is similar to the long running
Hotmail Account Hoax,
which claims that the recipient's Hotmail account will be
shutdown if the message is not forwarded. Like the Hotmail hoax,
this one should be deleted rather than forwarded.
Write-up by Brett M. Christensen
