The "Chain Letter" Scam
In the "old" days these letters would come via the U.S. Mail, or
your colleagues would run them through the copier. Today they arrive at your
e-mail inbox.
While many of them may fill you with emotion and make you want to believe,
almost all of them are hoaxes - and while you may think that sending them on to
others is harmless, they can cause problems:
 | e-mails that circulate through office mail systems (and the internet),
clog up traffic and cause delays of other e-mails. One company estimated
that over 60% of e-mails today are "SPAM" - junk e-mails - which
is really what these e-mails are. |
| If the e-mail contains an attachment - it could very well contain a
computer virus. Nobody wants to be responsible for spreading a computer
virus, right? |
| When you forward on the e-mail to a list of friends, and then they forward
it on - those lists of e-mail addresses can end up in the hands of unscrupulous
people - who may very well add your e-mail address (and the e-mail addresses
of all your friends) to their lists of other SPAM! |
| Many of these e-mails mention charities that will get donations
"automatically" or from generous benefactors who see the e-mails
spreading around the world - this never happens - and the real charities
lose in the end, because people don't make real contributions thinking their
e-mail chain letter did it for them.
 | One example of this is the "Slow Dance/Last Dance" poem purportedly
written by a dying girl. At the end of the poem, the e-mail asks you to
forward it to friends and a donation to the American Cancer Society will
be made automatically. Please see the link below for the official
response from the American Cancer Society:
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More About Internet Hoaxes
can be found at these sites:
www.snopes.com
www.urbanlegends.about.com
www.nonprofit.net/hoax/default.htm
www.vmyths.com
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