Chain - Letter

We did mention chain letters briefly in our pyramid schemes review but chain letters are different because of who has put them together, what they hope to gain and how they operate.

For those of you who don't know: A chain letter is a letter that you receive telling you to forward $1 (or more) to five people on a list. You are then instructed to remove the top name on the list and mail the letter out to as many people as you can. The next person will remove the top name and mail as many as well.

This sounds great but there are a few problems:

1. Most people are only going to throw the letter away and not do anything. Probably 99.9%. The 5% returns they advertise are a joke. There isn't any way this is going to happen.
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2. Chain letters are illegal. There is no real product or service being exchanged. Nothing people would pay $1 for. Don't be fooled by variations with recipes because they are not legal either.
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3. Since the chain letter isn't controlled by any one group, people are going to remove all the names and put on their friends and family. That way they are getting $5 from each sucker instead of $1.

Most people think that some crazy guy or gal started this chain letter but that is really the funny part. All chain letters (without exception) are started by mailing list companies. That is why there are ads for either one or two mailing list companies at the bottom of the chain letter.

They are getting free advertising because when people decide that they are going to sign up with the chain letter, they buy the cheap mailing lists from the company (or companies) that are listed on the letter.

Free advertising (although illegal) is still pretty clever. Now you know the real truth so when you receive a chain letter, you can recycle it or mail the people on the list directing them to this review.

English Folklore

A relatively recent phenomenon, but one which already has its own traditional mixture of continuity and variation which makes it an interesting folkloric genre. The essence of a chain letter is that each recipient is required to copy it a number of times and forward those copies to others, thus making an ever-growing chain. Many examples do no more than this, but the more complex types include a list of names and addresses with instructions what to do. You should send something (money, a postcard, or whatever is dictated) to the person at the top of the list. Before forwarding it the required number of times, you should add your name to the bottom of the list of names and addresses given in the letter, and omit the top one. Depending on how many copies each recipient is instructed to make, everyone involved should receive a large number of letters in return as their name climbs to the top of the list, provided nobody breaks the chain. The earliest example so far found is handwritten on a postcard, postmarked 15 July 1916:

Endless chain of prayer. O Lord we ask thee to bless our soldiers & sailors & keep them in the hollow of thine hand & bring them to rest with thee for thou art our refuge & helper in time of trouble & we would ask thee to give us peace in our time send thine help from above Amen. This is to be sent all over the world. Send it & see what will happen. It is said in olden times, that he who wrote it would be free from all misfortune send it to 7 persons & on the 7th day you will receive great joy. Do not send more than one a day. Commence when you receive this. Please do not break the chain.

Popular culture

• The comic strip Calvin and Hobbes had Calvin receiving a chain letter stating that "a man in Denver made 20 copies and was awarded a raise" and that "a man in Seattle broke the chain and he went bald." When Hobbes says that the chain letter is "nonsense for superstitious nincompoops" and advises Calvin to throw it away, the letter continues "and a dumb kid like you listened to his friend and got run over by a cement mixer."
  
• An episode of Wings had Fay, Antonio and Roy receiving chain letters instructing them to make more copies to send to friends and praise the sun god Ra. Fay and Roy eagerly make letters but Antonio throws his in the garbage, refusing to believe in nonsense. Fay and Roy have amazing luck and say "Praise the sun god Ra!". Antonio suffers multiple mishaps but refuses to reverse his actions, arguing that as a Catholic praising another god is blasphemy and idolatry.
• In the comic strip Archie Comics Archie gets sent a mail chain letter and sends it to his friends, who get bad luck and Archie gets good luck.

History

There have been Himmelsbriefe ("Heaven letters") since at least the Middle Ages. And one could look to the Egyptian Book of the Dead as a meme that promised resurrection to those entombed with a copy.

With the development of e-mail and the Internet, chain letters have become much, much more common and quick to spread than when they were transmitted purely by physical mail, although RFC 1855 explicitly discouraged them as a breach of netiquette. Some e-mail providers prohibit users from sending chain e-mails in their terms of service.

Variations

Phones

Versions being sent to mobile phones via SMS have also become common recently.

Web based

Chain letters have become popular on MySpace (in the form of myspace bulletins) and Youtube (in the form of video comments). MySpace chain letters are often coupled with intimidating hoaxes.

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.

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. They may contain false information, such as the famous "Forward this to everyone you know and if it reaches 1000 people everyone on the list will receive $1000" type e-mails. Other emails that appear have stated that Disneyland will grant free tickets to anyone who forwards the email. They may also be politically motivated, such as "Save the Scouts, forward this to as many friends as possible", or a concept that Touched by an Angel may be forced off the air (which has never been proven true). 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". Some threaten users with bad luck if not forwarded. There are many forms of chain e-mail that threaten death or the taken 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. YouTube and Myspace are sites which frequently gets threatening messages to users, stating that if the chain is broken and the message is not forwarded, the receivers of the messages will face death by the spirit of someone who has died.

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.