The Purpose of Chain Letter Scams
Chain letters have been around for a very long time. While most people believe that they started on the internet, this isn't actually true. Chain letters have been around for hundreds of years and have always been a huge pain in the butt.
Types of Chain Letters
There are actually two different kinds of chain letters. While some chain letters are perfectly harmless and doesn't involve any money, there are also others which are trying to extort money from you. Both types are very annoying and can make people feel pressured into doing something.
The most common types of chain letters are the types which are harmless but annoying. You have probably seen a large number of examples of these over the years. Sometimes you might even consider forwarding these to other people. These chain letters work by promising you something in return for passing the letter on. This can be anything from good luck to lots of money.
Most of these will say that if you forward the email to so many people then you will get whatever they are offering in return.
Dangerous Chain Letters
There is also another much more worrying type of chain letter which involves scams and investments. People often fall for these because the investment is normally fairly small. These types of chain letters are illegal in almost every single country all over the world.
The criminals are very resourceful and they can use all sorts of stories to make you believe that you have to invest a small amount of money. They can appeal to your greed by offering you something in return. They can also play on your emotions by telling you about a really sad story and saying that they need your help. These are always a scam and you should avoid replying to them. Any of the work from home chain letters that you get will turn out to be nothing more than pyramid schemes.
Think About it
Many chain letters claim that once the email has been sent to x number of people you will get a free gift. How does the email actually know how many people you have sent it to? How does it know how many people it has ever been to?
This is a lie designed to make you feel like you have to send it on. By offering you a reward for sending it to so many people you feel compelled to send it to as many people as possible. Everyone has been tempted to send a chain letter on because they have nothing to lose. There are even fake testimonials which seem to back up the fact that without forwarding the chain letter something bad will happen to you.
Chain letters really aren't worth forwarding because if you do then you are much more likely to receive a lot of spam email. You are also exposing yourself to a scam if you reply to one of the dangerous chain letters. No matter how much a story pulls on your heart strings never open up your wallet for an email. If you really must reply to chain letters then make sure you do so safely and use a free disposable email account.
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