Chain letter

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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 one or more new recipients. 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]

Although no state or federal laws currently exist banning chain letters; they are viewed as a general nuisance as 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] 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.

[edit] Variations

[edit] Phones

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

[edit] Web based

Chain letters have become popular 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.

Many chain letter offer the promise of providing the sender with some secret information such as "the name of your crush" if they press a certain key or combination of keys immediately after sending the message.

eg. man this is creepy send this to every1 on ur list and then press F8 and ur crushes name will appear on ur screen".

Often the keys suggested are common shortcut keys to close the application or restart the computer or, at best, do nothing at all.

[edit] Facebook

On the Facebook chain messages are usual sent trough "Wall" applications such as "Super Wall", "FunWall" or "Advanced Wall". Some of those messages:

  • Picture of a puppy and title "click forward....to see what happens!"
  • Fake message from Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of the Facebook which says that the Facebook is overpopulated and your account will be removed if you don't forward that message.
  • Message which starts with:"This is a message I received this morning. Someone is cloning our profiles. " and describes that someone is using your pictures to create profile similar to yours and than send spam to your friends trough that profile.

[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. 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.

[edit] Instant Messaging

Chain messages sent via instant messenger networks such as MSN, Yahoo, AIM, and ICQ are common. Most chain messages tend to say "Send this to everyone in your contact list and you will be in love by 10:00pm tonight"

[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 visa 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.

[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] 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.
  • In The Compleat Al, Al receives mail but when he opens it, a metal chain comes out and Al says "Man, I hate these chain letters"[3]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Dan Sperber. An objection to the memetic approach to culture // Robert Aunger (2000). Darwinizing Culture: The Status of Memetics as a Science. Oxford University Press, 163-173
  2. ^ a b VanArsdale, Daniel W. (1998, 2002). Chain Letter Evolution. Retrieved on 2006-08-21.
  3. ^ The Compleat Al on YouTube.

[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

da:Kædebrev de:Kettenbrief es:Cadena de mensajes fr:Chaîne de lettres id:Surat berantai it:Catena di sant'Antonio he:מכתב שרשרת lt:Grandininiai laiškai hu:Lánclevél nl:Kettingbrief ja:チェーンメール pl:Łańcuszki pt:Corrente de e-mail ru:Письма счастья fi:Ketjukirje sv:Kedjebrev th:จดหมายลูกโซ่

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