Bill Gates is the internet's biggest fraud

NEWS Bill Gates has been awarded the dubious honour of being the subject of the most prevalent hoax email. An email offering recipients a share of Gates' considerable fortune has hit number one in the Sophos chart of most common chain letters, virus hoaxes and scams. The hoax – which calls upon recipients to forward the email to friends and family in order to qualify for their cash reward – has been going for years. Hoaxes just like this have already entered the nation's vocabulary, as a mainstay of pub conversations and radio chat, among others. So why are people still falling for them? Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos, said: "When people receive a hoax over the email in a pretty font they're far more likely to take notice of it than if a nutter just told them in the bus queue. It's goodwill that makes them forward it on." Does the Windows svengali know about how his name is being bandied about? And, more importantly, does he care? Cluley thinks not: "Bill's probably receiving these hoaxes, just like everyone else."