Got an e-mail message a bit ago from a neighborhood resident, whom I adore, by the way, forwarding an offer that seemed too good to be true, and, yup, sure enough, it is.

The message included a missive about Microsoft and AOL teaming up in a pyramid marketing scheme that would pay Windows users a sliding rate starting at $245 for blasting out the message. Then, the sooon-to-be fortunate person would get $243 for each person on their distribution list who sent it out, and another $231 for each third person who followed suit.

Microsoft is purported to track each message as it leaves a person's computer — kinda scary in itself, but you know they could do it if they really wanted to — and call those good minions who followed through to get their mailing addresses.

The hook line verbatim: "Thought this was a scam myself, But two weeks after receiving this e-mail and forwarding it on. Microsoft contacted me for my address and within days, I received a check for $24,800.00 You need to respond before the beta testing is over."

Only, no.

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