The ICQ Rumors
For those of you who may not know - ICQ (derived from "I Seek You") is an internet communication program developed by a little company in Isreal called Mirabilis. Upon its introduction in late 1996, ICQ was devoured by internet users immediately - and a massive word-of-mouth campaign resulted. Within six months, there were 850,000 users registered, and this was just the beginning (Side note: I was one of those users in the word of mouth campaign - I was number 253047).
ICQ's popularity continued to skyrocket as it became what most people considered the standard for internet communication. Users would memorize their ICQ numbers - and it wasn't unusual to see the digits on a business card with a person's normal information and email address.
Of course, such a vast communications network became a paradise for rumors and urban legends. ICQ's "Contact List" would work much like an email program's address book, allowing users to easily forward messages to everyone on their list at once. What was unique in this situation, however, was the fact that most of the rumors that were spreading across the network were about ICQ itself:
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ATTENTION!!! Its confirmed, Mirabilis is going to charge $0.10 for every message sent. If you want to vote against it, click FORWARD and send this message to EVERYONE on your list. If the number of vote is equal to the number of users (2,500,000), they''ll not request the payment. Delete the "who wrote" names on top! |
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ICQ is now requesting a US$5.00 registration fee for each individual account. Your account will be cancelled if this fee is not received by March 30, 1998. This payment can be waived by passing this message to at least 15 users. ICQ System Management |
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Starting in the month of July 1998, ICQ will be charging $12.95 monthly for an account on mirabilis ICQ. You can recieve 5 brownie points if you send this message to 20 people. Just forward this message and ICQ can detect how many times you have sent it. 10 brownie points is equal to one months pay for ICQ. Thanks for your help. ® Mirabilis ICQ 1998 |
I like the official looking "®" in that last one. The above examples all share some common internet hoax characteristics. The most notable is the insistance that forward the message to a specific number of users will have some desired effect (or prevent an undesirable one). Although it may be conceivably possible to track a message on a network such as ICQ (more conceivable than an email message at least), this is a definite sign that the message is not true. ICQ now has over 50 million registered users, and 8 million members log on to the service each day. It would be a massive undertaking to try and determine how many times a message had been forwarded by a particular, and it would result in no discernable benefit for the company. Look at the messages above - why would Mirabilis or now AOL care if you forwarded the messages to everyone on your list?
These rumors have persisted for years - and certainly do not appear to be losing momentum. I received this one tonight:
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Only 14hrs left then ICQ will charge you to use ICQ, if you forward this to everyone it will stay freeþClick on Foward and send to everyone in you [sic] list! |
As anyone who was an ICQ user in 1998 can tell you - circulation of messages like the few listed above increased dramatically when members discovered that online giant America Online planned to purchase Mirabilis in June of that year. ICQ users were outraged at the news, believing that AOL was either going to ruin the network with advertisments and buggy software, or eliminate the service alltogether to force more people to use AOL's own "Instant Messenger," which had become available to internet users in 1997. The dire warnings would follow:
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Right now the some 12 million users of ICQ pay nothing for the service but all that is about to change according to Gamesmania sources inside AOL. There will be one of two scenarios developing over the next few months. One scenario sees ICQ users have to pay $20 for three months use or $50 for the entire year for their ICQ privileges with a maximum number of users they can authorize. Right now you can authorize as many people as you want to. |
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America Online is planning on charging an extra $4.99 fee per month to all users for accessing web pages...this will be in affect January 1, 2000 for the new billing month...each person this is sent to will count as a signature...if more than 50% of America Online customers sign this then the new billing plan will be dropped...please forward to everyone!... thanks... |
I particularly like this one (Microsoft doesn't own ICQ - and has no impact on its operation):
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URL: If we get 1000000 forwards, they cannot do it. |
Many of these rumors can possibly be attributed in part to the ambiguous information on the ICQ website itself. The program has always been called a "Time Limited Free Beta," by Mirabilis and now AOL, which sounds like a hint that it will not be free forever. However, on its website ICQ explans the policy this way:
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Concerning our Time Limited Free Beta software policy - No change is currently being considered in this policy, which has prevailed ever since we introduced our product. In any case, in the future, if at all we will consider any changes in this policy, an advance notice of at least 30 days will be given. |
The easiest thing to do when you get a message like this is to investigate. On ICQ's main page, there is a link that explains the rumors thoroughly. There are also a number or resources on the internet that you can check out.
ChrisFor more information: