The original "Make Money Fast" letter was written around 1988 by a person who used the name Dave Rhodes. It is often said Rhodes was a student at Columbia Union College, a Christian college in Maryland, who wrote a text file chain letter titled "Make Money Fast", and uploaded it to a nearby BBS[1]. It is often said that Rhodes was convicted of some fraud-related crime and that as part of his sentence he had to create an anti-spam website, but no evidence of this has been found.
The scam reached the Internet, where it was forwarded over e-mail and Usenet, although it was not until spamming became a major problem in 1994 that "Make money fast" exploded. It became one of the most persistent spams in existence and multiple variations have evolved, often by spammers who change the subject of their email to "This really works!" or "You are a winner!"
