Chain letter

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 This article may contain original research or unverified claims.
Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (March 2008)
For other uses, see Chain letter (disambiguation).

A typical chain letter consists of a message that attempts to induce the recipient to make a number of copies of the letter and then pass them on to as many recipients as possible. A chain letter can be considered a type of meme.[1] Common methods used in chain letters include emotionally manipulative stories, get-rich-quick pyramid schemes, and the exploitation of superstition to threaten the recipient with bad luck or even physical violence or death if he or she "breaks the chain" and refuses to adhere to the conditions set out in the letter.

Chain letters are capable of evolution, generally improving their ability to convince their hosts to replicate them over time.[2] This sometimes occurs through deliberate modification of the chain letter by a recipient, or sometimes through purely accidental imperfect copying.[2]

In the United States, chain letters that request money or other items of value and promise a substantial return to the participants is considered a form of gambling and, therefore, illegal. Other types of chain letters are viewed as a general nuisance in that frequently multiplying letters clog up the postal system and do not function as correspondence mail, but rather, a game. Some colleges and military bases have passed regulations stating that in the private mail of college students and military personnel, respectively, chain letters are not authorized and will be thrown out. However, it is often difficult to tell chain letters from genuine correspondence.

Contents

[edit] Themes

 Please help improve this section by expanding it.
Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (March 2008)
  • Good luck / bad luck
  • Wealth
  • Activism
  • Love / Romance
  • E or YUG's
  • Health/Death
  • Religion

[edit] Channels

[edit] Print

The oldest known channel for chain letters is, of course, written or printed letters on paper. These might be exchanged hand-to-hand or distributed through the mail. One notorious early example was the "Prosperity Club" or "Send-a-Dime" letter. This letter started in Denver, Colorado in 1935, based on an earlier luck letter. It soon swamped the Denver post office with hundreds of thousands of letters before spilling into St. Louis and other cities.[2]

[edit] E-mail

Some may seem fairly harmless, for example, a grammar school student wishing to see how many people can receive his e-mail for a science project, but can grow exponentially and be hard to stop. Messages sometimes include phony promises from companies or wealthy individuals (such as Bill Gates) promising a monetary reward to everyone who receives the message.[3] They may also be politically motivated, such as "Save the Scouts, forward this to as many friends as possible",[citation needed] or a concept that Touched by an Angel may be forced off the air (which has never been proven true).[citation needed] Some recent chain e-mails say that a company "will stop its free email service if you don't send this message to X people".[citation needed] Some threaten users with bad luck if not forwarded. There are many forms of chain e-mail that threaten death or the taking of one's soul by telling tales of other's deaths, such as the Katu Lata Kulu chain e-mail, stating that if it is not forwarded, the receivers of the message will be killed by the spirit.[citation needed] Platforms like Facebook, YouTube and Myspace can host chain letters playing with users' emotions.[4]

One chain letter distributed on MSN Hotmail began, "Hey it's Tara and John the directors of MSN"... and tells you that your account will be deleted if you don't sent that message to everyone. Of course this was not true.[5]

[edit] Chain Spiders

A chain spider is a type of electronic chain letter whereby recipients are encouraged to sign a petition in favour of a particular cause with the list of names contained within the message. This is called a chain spider because each time it is forwarded to a group of people each recipient receives an independent clone of the message such that numerous copies will exist with signatures being added to only one copy. For example if Fred started a chain spider and sent it initially to Katie and Andrew, who in turn signed it, Katie and Andrew would then have different lists to send on with Andrew's friends never being added to Katie's list and vice versa. Any chain spider with a large number of names on it is almost certainly fraudulently created because an exponential amount of these letters would have to exist for the letter to have been passed on in so many steps. For example, if each recipient who received a chain spider sent it on to 10 friends and nobody signed it twice, then for any one list of names to contain 10 signatures, everyone in the world must have signed one of the billion separate messages in existence.[citation needed]

[edit] Web communities

Chain letters have become widespread on MySpace (in the form of myspace bulletins) and Youtube (in the form of video comments) as well as on Facebook through messages or applications. Chain letters are often coupled with intimidating hoaxes or the promise of providing the sender with "secret" information once they've forwarded the message.

The Katu Lata Kulu chain message on YouTube has been a popular chain message in many videos. The original message states that the spirit of a girl from Africa that was killed would take the spirit of anyone who hadn't forwarded the message. Since the Katu Lata Kulu chain message started, many YouTube video comments had the chain message retold on their video comment page, angering many users to retaliate by creating parody videos as well as messages about the Katu Lata Kulu chain message curse. Many people tried to stop the demonic chain letter by spamming every found copy of it and reporting the poster. It worked.[citation needed]

[edit] Legality

Chain letters may also qualify under other types of illegal activities, as in the case of a Ponzi scheme asking recipients to send money and forward the e-mail. They may be harmful, and contain trojans.

In the United States it is illegal to mail chain letters that involve pyramid schemes or other such financial inducements under Title 18, United States Code, Section 1302, the Postal Lottery Statute, though chain letters that ask for items of minor value such as business cards or recipes are not covered by this law.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Dan Sperber. An objection to the memetic approach to culture // Kayla (2000). Darwinizing Culture: The Status of Memetics as a Science. Oxford University Press, 163-173
  2. ^ a b c VanArsdale, Daniel W. (1998, 2002). Chain Letter Evolution. Retrieved on 2006-08-21.
  3. ^ Mikkelson, Barbara; David Mikkelson. Thousand Dollar Bill. Urban Legends Reference Pages. Retrieved on 2008-03-24.
  4. ^ Do you want to be my Facebook Friend?? Stop Threatening Me!!.
  5. ^ Thousands fall for hotmail prank. BBC News (8-March-2006). Retrieved on 2008-05-27.

[edit] Bibliography

  • Dan Squier. The Truth About Chain Letters, 1990, Premier Publishers, ISBN 0915665212
  • Athena Dean. All That Glitters is Not Gold: Breaking Free From the Sweet Deceit of MLM, 1998, Winepress Publishing, ISBN 1579211348
  • RL Fitzpatrick. False Profits: Seeking Financial & Spiritual Deliverance in MLM & Pyramid Schemes, 1997, Herald Press, ISBN 0964879514
  • James Walsh. You Can't Cheat An Honest Man: How Ponzi Schemes & Pyramid Frauds Work, Merritt Publishing, ISBN 1563431696
  • Gary Tartaglia. Shattered Dreams: How To Avoid Costly Mistakes In Multi-level Marketing, 1985, Targeted Communications, ISBN 0961440406
  • Stephen Butterfield. Amway: The Cult of Free Enterprise, 1985, South End Press, ISBN 0896082539
  • John Scarne. Complete Guide to Gambling, Fully Revised, Expanded, Updated edition. Fireside, 1986, ISBN 0671630636

[edit] External links

[edit] Scam chain e-mail

[edit] Examples of urban-legend type chain e-mails