Chain letter

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It has been suggested that chain e-mail be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)

Chain Letter may also refer to the Brooke Valentine's debut album, see Chain Letter.

Chain Letters may also refer to the UK gameshow, see Chain Letters.

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. Common methods used by 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 if he or she "breaks the chain" and refuses to adhere by the conditions set out by the letter.

Chain letters are capable of evolution, generally improving their ability to convince their hosts to replicate them over time.<ref name="VanArsdale 1998">VanArsdale, Daniel W. (1998, 2002). Chain Letter Evolution. Retrieved on 2006-08-21.</ref> This sometimes occurs through deliberate modification of the chain letter by a recipient, or sometimes through purely accidental imperfect copying.<ref name="VanArsdale 1998"/>

With the development of e-mail and the Internet, chain letters have become 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 (see chain e-mail).

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 intombed with a copy.

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.<ref>Chain Letters. United States Postal Inspection Service. Retrieved on 2006-08-21.</ref>

Chain letters have become popular in the MySpace community, many of which are in the form of MySpace bulletins. MySpace chain letters often have intimidating hoaxes.^{[citation needed]}

Chain letters on the site mainly include petitions for site layout revisions, and new content for the site's avatar system.^{[citation needed]}

Another example is the style that suggests adding your name and country (e.g. Joe Bloggs, England) to the bottom of the list and simply seeing how far it gets around the world.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] See also

Chain e-mail
Mail fraud
Make money fast
Amish Friendship Bread (a culinary version of a chain letter)
Samizdat - a chain-letter-like means of publishing and distributing forbidden material under Soviet rule
Mon cher Mustapha letter - a chain letter used as a form of black propaganda
The Cursed Videotape - a fictitious chain-letter-like supernatural object.