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BS: Chain Letters
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Subject: Chain Letters From: Jeri Date: 13 Jan 01 - 04:40 PM Chain letters are a pet peeve of mine, because a lot of normally intelligent people are conned by them. Someone let me in on the con a while ago, and I'd like to do the same for others. This is all my own philosophy, except for the math, or my attempt at it. How to recognise a chain letter
It says "send this to everyone you know." That's just about it, except for the fact there's usually something in it to make you feel like you must send it. This can be a "make a million dollars" statement, or an implication that you're a bad human if you don't send it. For most people, guilt, or a play on their concience works better than money as a hook. Why they're bad
Let's say each person sent this message to only 5 people.
Thanks for reading. |
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Subject: Link to 'Class Project' From: Bernard Date: 13 Jan 01 - 05:13 PM There's another thread currently running on a similar theme... blicky Unfortunately chain letters are so much more readily passed on by email than by snailmail, and the rapidly multiplying newcomers to the Net are easy pickings. I hate the 'National Smile Week' and 'Help a Rumanian Child' (etc) variants - emotional blackmail. Sadly, there is nothing we can do to stop them, but we can all do our bit to limit their inexorable spread!! If you find one, delete it, and risk the wrath of whoever it threatens you with! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Chain Letters From: SINSULL Date: 13 Jan 01 - 05:28 PM Got a chain letter in the mail once. It threatened me with dire consequences if I didn't follow the instructions and pass it on. In disgust I burned it. A piece flew through the air and burned a hole in a new carpet. Not quite as dire as expected. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Chain Letters From: Sorcha Date: 13 Jan 01 - 05:44 PM I hate them too, and delete them all with out sending on. If I am in a pissed off enough mood, I reply to sender and add a blistering "don't send me this kind of crap anymore" note. We have family that likes to send out "Christian" chain letters, and they piss me off even more! Crap like "last week on my way to church, I passed a homeless man and I did not invite him to church with me...." Full speed ahead, and damn the torpedoes! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Chain Letters From: Sourdough Date: 13 Jan 01 - 05:54 PM Jeri - If my calculations are correct, you are way too conservative on the numbers. I didn't work it out for 30 days but I think you are short about two million in the cumulative total for just ten days. And yes, there are programs for stripping off names from headers of e-mail so that enterprising types can sell them to canned spammers. As John Lennon might have said, "there is a Spammer in the works". Let's say you have a very funny joke and you send it to someone who enjoys it so much that he forwards it on to twelve friends on his humor list. They in turn forward it to their friends. Like a snowball rolling down a cartoon slope of sticky snow, the message header builds, as the e-mail copies head off through the cyber world on their individual ways. Eventually, one or more of them may reach a collector who strips off the names and sells them. I try to do my part by supressing the address list so that there is no list of recipients traveling with the message. Sourdough
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Subject: RE: BS: Chain Letters From: catspaw49 Date: 13 Jan 01 - 06:13 PM I never could get the idea of chain letters. There's limited writing spae and chain is heavy and costs a fortune to mail. I tried one on the computer but it slipped while I was trying to load it and smashed my monitor. A real pain in the ass............ Spaw |
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Subject: RE: BS: Chain Letters From: Sourdough Date: 13 Jan 01 - 06:15 PM I believe The Ghost of Christmases Past was trying to deliver one to Scrooge and we know how that worked out. Sourdough |
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Subject: RE: BS: Chain Letters From: Jon Freeman Date: 13 Jan 01 - 06:16 PM
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Subject: RE: BS: Chain Letters From: Gary T Date: 13 Jan 01 - 06:33 PM Spaw, you're not supposed to put the chain in your....oh, never mind. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Chain Letters From: catspaw49 Date: 13 Jan 01 - 06:34 PM Dang Gary.....I did somethin' wrong huh? Spaw |
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Subject: RE: BS: Chain Letters From: Jeri Date: 13 Jan 01 - 06:36 PM The reason for the difference between Jon's totals and mine is I counted one day for the first person to get the message and one day for the first to mail it to the five. He starts with the five people already having received the message, so there are two more days included in his. (I did a spreadsheet too - no way I'd sit here with a calculator to figure it out!) I do like the jokes, even if I don't like the thought of my e-mail address showing up on a gazillion copies. I don't receive much spam though, so I'm not too worried. Bernard, the "emotional blackmail" bit is a big reason why these things continue. It's sort of like those TV commercials for "Save the Children" that imply if you don't send money, you're heartless. Folks feel guilty for not sending the things on. Good marketing ploy, but I'd like to think people eventually wise up. (And in my mind, good causes become a lot less good when folks try those tactics.) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Chain Letters From: Jon Freeman Date: 13 Jan 01 - 06:49 PM Which ever way, the figures are mindblowing. Since my last post here, I have recieved 2 copies of this on ICQ:
URL:
URL Description: Only a minor irritation but some people never learn. Jon |
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Subject: RE: BS: Chain Letters From: Jeri Date: 13 Jan 01 - 06:59 PM At least I didn't call this "chain e-mail." We'd be talking e-whips and e-chains and I'd have to put the e-Xena costume on and punish that naughty Spaw... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Chain Letters From: Bernard Date: 13 Jan 01 - 07:23 PM Stripping headers from emails? You don't need to go to that trouble! Outlook Express will add addresses automatically to your address book - just set the option for adding addresses you've received mail from. I was round at a friend's house the other night, and was flabbergasted to see my sister's email address on her computer! Makes you think, dunnit?!! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Chain Letters From: Bernard Date: 13 Jan 01 - 07:26 PM Should have read that before I posted it! I meant to point out that OE takes all the addresses it finds, not just the sender! I'd sent a 'Happy New Year' email to a number of recipients - my friend has never had an email from my sister! Sorry if it was confusing! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Chain Letters From: R! Date: 13 Jan 01 - 07:39 PM Jon, the numbers on that matrix are scary. True story: I have a cousin who, for a variety of reasons, doesn't get out much. We spent lots of time together as youngsters but haven't seen much of each other in years (she's a seven hour drive from me). Her mum died last year and I spoke with her several times. I encouraged her to get internet access so we could communicate. My sister drove up north to connect her WebTV last July. Since then she has bombarded me with crap messages almost every day - some days I get three or four. Never a "Hi, thinking of you" message, just another garbage chain letter or a virus alert. I have unleashed a monster and I am so sorry. Please excuse me now while I have a case of the vapors. Rowana |
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Subject: RE: BS: Chain Letters From: Little Hawk Date: 13 Jan 01 - 08:02 PM Aw, you're just pulling our chain again aren't you, Spaw? I delete the blasted things. - LH |
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Subject: RE: BS: Chain Letters From: catspaw49 Date: 13 Jan 01 - 08:42 PM I'm not pulling any chains here Hawk! As I said, I already broke one monitor trying to stuff one of the damn things in the A drive and I just ain't going through that again. Plus now, I'm saving all my chains for when Xenajeri drops by. I already have the whips out and the handcuffs ready, just waiting. We get to going on that stuff and I'll let you know.....You can look for us in the LINKS section. Spaw |
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Subject: RE: BS: Chain Letters From: Gary T Date: 14 Jan 01 - 01:09 AM My reaction is one of love. I hope folks don't tire of them--what with it being winter and snowy and such, the timing isn't right for a bicycle. But then, I saw a gang of fools leaning on a fence outside a store, smoking and eating food. I had just received a preserved daisy in the mail, and gave it a bit of thought. Still didn't make sense. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Chain Letters From: Melani Date: 14 Jan 01 - 01:27 AM If you don't post this thread to everyone you know before midnight, your computer will self-destruct before morning! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Chain Letters From: Margaret V Date: 14 Jan 01 - 01:37 AM Well, I know I've touted electric zither player Brian Dewan here on Mudcat before, but I'll do it again: he's got a hilarious song about chain letters (called... "The Letter") on his album "Brian Dewan Tells the Story." It's perfect. Margaret |
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Subject: RE: BS: Chain Letters From: rangeroger Date: 14 Jan 01 - 02:32 AM I was into whips and pain She was into chains I tied her to the cellar wall rr |
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Subject: RE: BS: Chain Letters From: Jeri Date: 14 Jan 01 - 10:34 AM I had this one saved somewhere on my computer. Edited "F" words in case someone has a content filter. I think whoever wrote this one might have been slightly irritated with chain letters. (NOTE: not gentle humor.) -----------------------------------------------
Hello, my name is Alfonso Merkin. So basically, this message is a big F*CK YOU to all the people out there who have nothing better to do than to send me stupid chain mail 'forwards'. Maybe the evil chain letter leprechauns will come into my apartment and sodomize me in my sleep for not continuing the chain which was started by Jesus in 5 A.D. and was brought to this country by midget pilgrims on the Mayflower and if it makes it to the year 2000, it'll be in the Guinness Book of World Records for longest continuous streak of blatant stupidity. F*ck them. If you're going to forward something, at least send something mildly amusing. I've seen all the "send this to 50 of your closest friends, and this poor, wretched excuse for a human being will somehow receive a nickel from some omniscient being" 'forwards' about 90 times. I*don't*f*cking*care. Show a little intelligence and think about what you're actually contributing to by sending out 'forwards.' Chances are it's your own unpopularity. P.S. Please forward this to at least 50 of your best friends!
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Subject: RE: BS: Chain Letters From: Sorcha Date: 14 Jan 01 - 11:06 AM Jeri, I LOVE it!! (but I don't think I can send that to the Christian aunts and uncles........would love to, though!) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Chain Letters From: kendall Date: 14 Jan 01 - 04:05 PM I take great delight in trashing this crap |
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Subject: RE: BS: Chain Letters From: Greyeyes Date: 14 Jan 01 - 04:28 PM I received a virus alert of this nature recently, I assumed it was genuine, am I really thick? I didn't forward it mind you, I suppose I just felt other people's e-mail wasn't my responsibility. Not a particularly praiseworthy motive, but I'm glad now. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Chain Letters From: Jeri Date: 14 Jan 01 - 04:31 PM I'd never send the above to anyone because they sent me a chain letter, just the people who hate them as much as I. I have a friend who sent me chain letters on a regular basis - no one around here, BTW. I finally just wrote and asked her to stop, and explained a bit about why I hated them (the numbers of messages, the lies, the control tactics.) I kept it short and was polite. She stopped sending the messages, may have learned something, and I still have a friend. I get mad at things people do, and I get mad at myself when I don't have the guts to say something right away. I don't usually get mad at people for not understanding something if I or someone else hasn't tried to help them. I've been on the receiving end of patient explanations about chain letters (and all sorts of other sensitive topics), and I think it's only fair I pass them along. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Chain Letters From: Zebedee Date: 14 Jan 01 - 04:49 PM I hardly get any junk mail at all maybe one every two months or so. So, for anyone interested, here are a few tips: * Never give your email out to a web site that asks for it to allow you to use it's services. Make one up. no@goaway.com will work. * If the site says it needs to send confirmation to a valid email address, set up an alternative email, using one of the web based services such as www.hotmail.com. You can fill all the address fields with garbage if you like, and put a false email for any 'current email address' question. * If you find yourself plagued by someone, use your email software to block them. I tried to explain how to do it for Outlook Express in this thread * If someone sends you a message as part of a group mailing, write back and politely be asked to be removed from their list. If they really want you to get the message, they'll send it individually. * If you are really having problems, try using your email software to filter out certain words. Doing this may however mean that you miss things. XXX is the only thing that I filter. Hope these tips help, they certainly work for me. Ed |
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Subject: RE: BS: Chain Letters From: blt Date: 14 Jan 01 - 05:05 PM Another variant on this theme is the email petition, usually describing some heart wrenching disaster, always aiming at one's political sensibilities, and more often than not, bogus or at least highly suspect. It's particularly frustrating because I used to be a big petition supporter, but over the last few years, petitioners began to be paid by the signature (if they're actually gathering signatures on paper), not by their political values or committment, and then petitions started showing up on email. As with chain letters, the only thing to do is delete them unforwarded. If it's a cause I feel drawn to, I'll do the research and write a real letter instead, which still carries more weight than email. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Chain Letters From: Banjer Date: 14 Jan 01 - 05:46 PM For years people have been telling me I am probably one of "The MISSING LINKS". I am VERY PLEASED to be the 'MISSING LINK' in the chain letters that arrive in my e-mail. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Chain Letters From: Morticia Date: 14 Jan 01 - 06:11 PM I have nothing but contempt for all this manipulative garbage, particularly the sickly -sweet, " wouldn't this world be a happier place if we all just love one another and clog up our mates e-mail with this Shite" type ones.....deletion is too good for it! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Chain Letters From: Zebedee Date: 14 Jan 01 - 06:13 PM if you followed my advice, you wouldn't ever have to think about it... Ed |
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Subject: RE: BS: Chain Letters From: Sorcha Date: 14 Jan 01 - 06:49 PM I do, Zeb, I do. And I have installed the filters but new ones just keep coming.........I NEVER respond to them (as in, to delete your name from this list, respond here (clicky). They still piss me off. Sort of like phone solicitors-----who is paying this bill? Whose phone/e mail is this? Get off my porch!! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Chain Letters From: Zebedee Date: 15 Jan 01 - 06:24 PM Sorcha, Have you had your email address a long time? If so, my guess (and it's only a guess) is that you've already become part of a number of big lists which are sold / traded. If so, I can only recommend getting a new address, and never giving it out to anyone you don't know. Ed |
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Subject: RE: BS: Chain Letters From: Burke Date: 15 Jan 01 - 06:47 PM Glad to see this thread just because I got the NPR petition again this morning. I think the first time I saw it was when it was new in 1995 & at least timely. It struck me oddly even then. One person even sent it to me twice, a couple of years apart. When I get it I reply to the sender with a link to one of the many sites that explain the story behind it. I don't even have to rewrite my note, just resend from the last time I did it. I do have several friends who include me on their joke/interesting thoughts lists. There are just enough that I like that I don't flame the sender. I rarely send them on, and if I do, it's to individually selected folks who I think will actually appreciate it. I send so few & express such little interest, that I can't say I get a lot of them. What I don't understand is executables people send willy nilly, like viruses aren't a problem? I do get comercial spam of all kinds but just delete on sight. All complaints aside, raise your hand if you got a kick out of the Bill Gates pies program. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Chain Letters From: Jeri Date: 15 Jan 01 - 07:08 PM I've had 2 pieces of commercial spam (if you don't count the "sort of" other 2 from PalTalk) since 1 Oct. I used to get a lot of spam before I added a few X's in my reply to address when posting Usenet messages. One musician apparently got my address from Mudcat and added me to his mail list. It's no big deal, but there's no way I can make those gigs over a thousand miles away. (If I lived there, I'd probably be happy to receive the messages.) I've never received a chain letter from a stranger. They've all been from people who I want to have my correct address. I just don't want them to send me chain letters. Burke, that NPR petition is the one that got me a couple of years ago. Hell, it looked like it was for real. (They all do, or no one would send them.)
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Subject: RE: BS: Chain Letters From: NightWing Date: 15 Jan 01 - 07:40 PM As Jeri described, when I receive chain letters (etc), I always write back to the sender calmly describing why they are bad and how to recognize them. At work I've got a couple of links that I usually include: info and opinions from virus manufacturers and the like. Only one person ever responded negatively to my letter. It's kind of funny. A rather young correspondent sent me one of the 'Bill Gates E-Mail Tracer' letters. It claims that Bill will pay big bucks to everyone who passes it on if the e-mail gets to so many links. My young friend replied to my e-mail that he wasn't going to take any chances that it MIGHT be real, and I shouldn't either since MY not passing it on was a reflection on his passing it to me. But I haven't heard from him since.
BB, |
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Subject: RE: BS: Chain Letters From: Kim C Date: 16 Jan 01 - 03:55 PM I get a few things but they are usually from people I know and if I don't feel like reading it I delete it. Once in awhile I get a good funny, though. I do appreciate that. :) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Chain Letters From: Bert Date: 16 Jan 01 - 05:10 PM Hey Jeri, you gonna wear that Xena costume to Anna's??? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Chain Letters From: Mickey191 Date: 17 Jan 01 - 02:59 PM I have a friend who sends poems, jokes (which I don"t mind)but atleast once a week there is a threatening chain letter. If I don't pass it on my legs will be chopped off,I'll go blind or some such crap. It annoys the hell out of me, but I don't want to hurt her feelings. When I went on the internet, I thought emails were private until one day I sent a friend a song from melodylane.net. Next day I got email from a stranger who thanked me for turning him on to such a lovely site. How did he get to see my private message-anybody? Slainte. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Chain Letters From: Burke Date: 18 Jan 01 - 09:17 AM I the interest of demonstrating just what we've been talking about: ----If you receive an email entitled "Badtimes," delete itimmediately. Do not open it. Apparently this one is pretty nasty. It will not only erase everything on your hard drive, but it will also delete anything on a disk within 20 feet of your computer. It demagnetizes the stripes on ALL of your credit cards. It reprograms your ATM access code, screws up the tracking on your VCR and uses subspace field harmonics to scratch any CD's you attempt to play. It will program your phone auto dial to call only your mother-in-law's number. This virus will mix antifreeze into your fish tank. It will drink all your beer. (For Gods sake man are you listening?!?!) It will leave dirty socks on the coffee table when you are expecting company. It will replace your shampoo with Nair and your Nair with Rogaine, all the while dating your current boy/girlfriend behind your back and billing their hotel rendezvous to your Visa card. It will cause you to run with scissors and throw things in a way that is only fun until someone loses an eye. (Didn't your mother always say that?) It will rewrite your backup files, changing all your active verbs to passive tense and incorporating undetectable misspellings which grossly change the interpretations of key sentences. If the "Badtimes" message is opened in a Windows95/98 environment, it will leave the toilet seat up and leave your hair dryer plugged in dangerously close to a full bathtub. It will not only remove the forbidden tags from your mattresses and pillows, it will also refill your skim milk with whole milk. **WARN AS MANY PEOPLE AS YOU CAN.** And if you don't send this to 5000 people in 20 seconds you'll fart next time your making love. Send send send send send................ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Chain Letters From: Penny S. Date: 18 Jan 01 - 05:49 PM And have you noticed the internal references to events which happened after the letter originated and on branches of the letter which stopped? ie someone named did not pass it one, and was buried under a pile of bath ducks spilled during a lorry accident on the M25. Penny |
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Subject: RE: BS: Chain Letters From: the lemonade lady Date: 15 Jul 03 - 06:19 AM I have received a chain letter and a list of 5 addresses from a friend. I have to send £5 to the name at the top of the list, and cut off that name to whom I sent the £5. Put my name and address at the bottom of the list, photo copy the list of addresses 10 times (or more) and send them to 10 women friends. If it works I might gain £*****'s, if it doesn't all I lose is £5. I am always very suspicious of these things and NEVER participate. This time I am going to take the risk because I can't see any problems. OK so many,many people will have my address, but as I organise a folk festival, loads of people have my address anyway. I will keep this thread informed. Sal |
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Subject: RE: BS: Chain Letters From: the lemonade lady Date: 15 Jul 03 - 06:21 AM By the way, there is no threat on this letter and it's by snail mail. Sal |
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Subject: RE: BS: Chain Letters From: JohnInKansas Date: 15 Jul 03 - 09:40 AM Ms Lemon - One question. To whom did the originator of your letter send his $$? And how much does he/she stand to gain? To all in general: Because spammers do harvest addresses from junk of this kind, NO message to a "general address list" should EVER be sent except as BCC (blind carbon copies). Send the message to yourself, and put all others as BCC recipients. That way YOUR address is the only one that can be harvested, since it - and the spammer who gets it, will be the only addresses contained in the copy the spammer gets. The level of STUPIDITY required to participate in this crap is the surest indication that it will never cease. John |
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Subject: RE: BS: Chain Letters From: the lemonade lady Date: 15 Jul 03 - 11:06 AM I say again...'it's by snail mail.' Not Email! I have phoned other names on the list and after two weeks no one has received any money yet. Don't call me stupid by the way. I'll let you know when I have made a stupid mistake, Sir. I'm not saying that I agree with this, but looking at it logically, it could work and I am prepared to take a risk. Sticking out my neck isn't necessarily stupid. Don't disregard it out of hand. Sal |
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Subject: RE: BS: Chain Letters From: JohnInKansas Date: 15 Jul 03 - 07:32 PM Ms Lemon - Sorry if it sounded as if I was singling you out. The "stupid" comment was meant as a generic reference to the entire subject discussed. The letter you described has been around, to my personal knowledge, since at least the late 1940s. Although sending cash is most common, a common form in the 50s was "send the one at the top of the list a quart of your favorite booze;" and I knew, then, several people who participated in at least a dozen incarnations of that one over a period of a dozen years. Only one person I knew ever received the promised "prize," and that was only for a letter which we all suspected she started - and probably sent to a few dozen (or hundred) people, rather than the typical 5 or 10. If you look at the numbers generated by a couple of people in the early posts, the number of participants required to keep a scheme like this going to the 15th round or so exceeds the global population of the earth. Since most people send to people they know, who know the same people they do, such letters usually are confined to a rather smaller population, with the occasional "escape" to a new group. They usually "burn out" in the first 5 or 6 cycles, when people start getting it back from "friends of friends of...". You have no way of knowing how long the letter you receive has been in circulation, since - in the usual format - each person removes the top name (of the one to whom they sent the required "prize"), so there are usually a fixed number of names on the one forwarded. It's quite common for the originator to "manufacture" a list of a few names - mostly non-participants - to make it look like a new one has been travelling for a while. Any scheme requiring recruitment of "agents" in such an "increasing tier" system, to benefit, by exchange of money, sale of products, or exchange of merchandise, is what is known as a "Ponzi" or "pyramid" scheme, and is illegal in the U.S. as a "business practice." The request that you send money in the hope of receiving money makes it a business transaction in the opinion of the US Attorney General's office. In addition, US Postal regulations make it illegal to send such letters through the "snail mail." While simple "participation" is unlikely to attract the attention of the AG or USPS inspectors, originating such letters has been prosecuted. My personal observation, over more than 50 years, is that most people who forward "this" letter do not send anything to the one at the top of the list (nobody would know if you do that too), and quite often forward to far more than the "stated" number of recipients (also an anonymous "edge.") Of course, this makes you "an originator"... John |
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Subject: RE: BS: Chain Letters From: the lemonade lady Date: 16 Jul 03 - 02:36 PM #;-) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Chain Letters From: Burke Date: 16 Jul 03 - 04:13 PM Ms Lemon, you have the pre-email version of Make Money Fast. It's a pyramid scheme that just can't work over the long haul. In addition to what John said, in the US, it is illegal to send them through the US mail. You can find an explanation here. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Chain Letters From: LadyJean Date: 16 Jul 03 - 11:43 PM Well there's this to be said for internet chain letters. You know who sent them to you. I have gotten snailmail recipe chain letters. The idea being that you send a recipe to the first name on the list, add your name, and send the letter to 10 friends. Eventually, you're supposed to receive a bunch of recipes. It never happens to me. But I do pass them along. I've gotten my share of snailmail forward this or terrible things will happen letters. But they come without return address, and I can't click on an icon, and respond to tell the party what I think of them. Email chain letters sound much better. But please don't send me any! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Chain Letters From: JennyO Date: 17 Jul 03 - 10:32 AM I like this one: HE-mail |
