Chain Emails By

Chain Emails
By: The Masked Webmaster

You may be wondering what is the matter if a few get sent?
Chain letters are illegal (if they involve sending money),
and technically - so are Chain Emails.

We will discuss the potential problems in this article.

ICQ is a popular program first developed by an Israeli company,
now property of American Online. Millions of people use it every
day, and more often junk messages are being sent.

The network ICQ runs on suffers from "lag" or the amount of time
it takes from the moment you write a message to the time it takes
for the person to receive it.

The bulk of the lag problem is from unnecessary traffic.
And most (90% or better) is Chain Message related.

More on the ICQ messaging system can be found here:
ICQ Homepage

Why Are Chain E-mails & Messages Bad?

1. Hoaxes - Spread panic and misinformation.

2. Bandwidth - Networks can become clogged and cause delivery failure.

3. The Junk Factor - Everyone gets enough "junk e-mail" already- why create more?

4. Fraud - Many chain messages ask for $5 to be sent to be added to a list,
which is illegal.

What The Post-Office Says:

"There's at least one problem with chain letters. They're illegal if they request money or other items of value and promise a substantial return to the participants. Chain letters are a form of gambling, and sending them through the mail (or delivering them in person or by computer, but mailing money to participate) violates Title 18, United States Code, Section 1302, the Postal Lottery Statute. (Chain letters that ask for items of minor value, like picture postcards or recipes, may be mailed, since such items are not things of value within the meaning of the law.)"

How Bad Could It Get?
Imagine a scenario where you couldn't effectively read your email
from all the junk email getting in the way. Imagine an important business
email getting swept out with the rest of the junk in your inbox.

When you get so much junk you can barely tell what's junk and what's
not. Imagine getting so many calls you can't get important calls through-
that would be quiet irritating right?

How To Stop It:
Obviously if Chain E-mail was never forwarded, it would loose its effectiveness
and people would quit sending it. So before you hit that FORWARD button,
think about it first.

On The Lighter Side:
Here are some Chain E-mail Parodies:

Make Big Money

Make Enemies Fast

Chain Letters - House Of Horror site

In conclusion, we are all big boys and girls here~ so ultimately you make up your
own decisions about Chain E-mails.

A friend of ours in Japan is conducting an experiment using the Chain E-mail
delivery scheme; her experiment involves finding links between people and
who they know- based on the sixth degree theory.