Have you ever received an email from someone who you haven’t heard from for a while? You probably have, and I also receive emails from such people time to time. And guess what? They are not personal at all, but they are simply hoaxes which are being spread over the Internet to gather attention or cause social panic. What interests me is the motivation that causes a person to forward such emails to hundreds of their contacts. I found that most of these emails have few things in common:

1. They all carry a message which concerns most people. For example the issue of gas prices going up, or spreading HIV virus in society.

2. They all have some sort of conclusion at the end which convinces the reader that if they forward this message to 10-30 more people, they have served something for a good cause.

3. Finally, they all have false credits.

I am writing this post in regards to the gas price hoax email I have been receiving from friends during the past few weeks. In brief the message suggests a price war that can help stop gas price hikes to $4 per gallon. The message says that if we stop purchasing gas from Exxon and Mobile (Exxon and Shell in a different version of the message), presumably largest gas companies in the U.S., they eventually reduce their prices to attract customers and make profit again, and it will cause other gas companies follow the same price to stay in competition. So, in conclusion if 30 million Exxon or Shell customers stop purchasing gas from these companies, the gas price would not go up, but blowny!! It won’t work as thought. Gas demand would not change and people will still need to fill up their car tanks, so they have to go to other gas stations causing huge lines form in front of other gas stations than in front of Exxon or Shell. Other gas stations will ran out of gas quickly since the demand is higher at their station, Exxon and Shell will offer their gas to other companies to satisfy their customer demand. They sell their gas at pretty much the same price and they can lay back and close their gas stations, reducing their operation cost. So, they can actually benefit from it. It is a method of indirect sale and is very beneficial.

So please do yourself a favor and stop spreading spam and hoaxes over people’s inboxes and think about the situation and the method of raising awareness and credential of such emails. I owe much to Professor Bristow of my Entrepreneurship class who helped me understand why the price war does not work.

Bellow is he original message with some of my notes in double parenthesis, and also attached is a power point version of the hoax. It is virus free.

Original message:

GAS WAR This was originally sent by a retired Coca Cola executive ((What Coca-Cola has to do with gas? Perhaps they are going to sell corn syrup as a fuel alternative!)). It came from one of his engineer buddies who retired from Halliburton. It’s worth your consideration. Join the resistance!!!! I hear we are going to hit close to $4.00 a gallon by the end of this summer and it might go higher! !! Want gasoline prices to come down? We need to take some intelligent, united action. Phillip Hollsworth ((Who the f… is this person? I could not find any credibility.)) offered this good idea. This makes MUCH MORE SENSE than the "don’t buy gas on a certain day" campaign that was going around last April or May! ((Yeah! This was another hoax too.))The oil companies just laughed at that because they knew we wouldn’t continue to "hurt" ourselves by refusing to buy gas. It was more of an inconvenience to us than it was a problem for them. BUT, whoever thought of this idea, come ((Using proper English! Use past tense buddy! i.e. “came up”)) up with a plan that can really work. Please read on and join with us! By now you’re probably thinking gasoline priced at about $1.50 is super cheap. Me too! It is currently $2.79 for regular unleaded in my town ((And your town is ? I may consider buying gas at your town. It is darn cheap.)). Now that the oil companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned us to think that the cost of a gallon of gas is CHEAP at $1.50 - $1.75, we need to take aggressive action to teach them that BUYERS control the marketplace….. not sellers ((Negative on this one! Take some economics course.)). With the price of gasoline going up more each day, we consumers need to take action. The only way we are going to see the price of gas come down is if we hit someone in the pocketbook by not purchasing their gas! And, we can do that WITHOUT hurting ourselves. How? Since we all rely on our cars ((I’ll recommend using public transportation instead.)), we can’t just stop buying gas. But we CAN have an impact on gas prices if we all act together to force a price war. Here’s the idea: For the rest of this year ((This hoax was originated in 2006)), DON’T purchase ANY gasoline from the two biggest companies (which now are one), EXXON and MOBIL. If they are not selling any gas, they will be inclined to reduce their prices. If they reduce their prices, the other companies will have to follow suit. But to have an impact, we need to reach literally millions of Exxon and Mobil gas buyers ((Good job! You hunted me.)). It’s really simple to do! Now, don’t wimp out at this point…. keep reading and I’ll explain how simple it is to reach millions of people. I am sending this note to 30 people. If each of us sends it to just ten more (30 x 10 = 300) … and those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x 10 = 3,000)…and so on, by the time the message reaches the sixth group of people, we will have reached over THREE MILLION consumers. If those three million get excited and pass this on to ten friends each, then 30 million people will have been contacted! If it goes one level further, you guessed it….. THREE HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE ((Don’t you think it is a little overestimation for two gas companies customers?))!!! Again, all you have to do is send this to 10 people ((Beg me! I am not going to do it.)). That’s all. (If you don’t understand how we can reach 300 million and all you have to do is send this to 10 people…. Well, let’s face it, you just aren’t a mathematician. But I am, so trust me on this one.) How long would all that take? If each of us sends this e-mail out to ten more people within one day of receipt, all 300 MILLION people could conceivably be contacted within the next 8 days!!! I’ll bet you didn’t think you and I had that much potential, did you? ((Thanks for thinking it out for me. I cannot think myself. Did you do to gifted kids school?)) Acting together we can make a difference. If this makes sense to you, please pass this message on. I suggest that we not buy from EXXON/MOBIL UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES TO THE $1.30 RANGE AND KEEP THEM DOWN ((I kept it down. I just blogged about your BS plan.)). THIS CAN REALLY WORK.

Funny ha!

Power Point Version