Why these idiot schemes don't work

[Zifud]

I'm sure you've read these letters asking you to send $1 to six
different addresses.

[...]

I hate these messages and the idiots that propagate them. So just in
case you thought "hey, maybe they work", consider this:

The post suggests posting to 200 news groups (or more). Let's assume
you stick to 200. Let's also assume that just one person in each
newsgroup responds.

You send out 200 posts and are 6th on the list.
Each post propagates 200 more posts (40,000 posts) - you're now 5th.
Each post propagates 200 more posts (8,000,000 posts) - you're 4th .
---> 1,600,000,000 posts - you're 3rd.
---> 320,000,000,000 posts - you're 2nd.
---> 64,000,000,000,000 posts - you're 1st - with *$64 trillion*

That's 1,000 times richer than Bill Gates!

Only problem is, that the last set of posts flooded all 32,000
newsgroups with 2,000,000,000 messages.

Yes, *2 billion* messages! On *every* newsgroup! There aren't even
that many adults with access to a computer on the entire planet, much
less with the ability or capacity to send you $1.

Reality sux, eh?