 |  |  |  |  |
Everybody's received them - chain letters or email messages that promise a
big return on a small investment. The promises include unprecedented
good luck, mountains of recipes, or worse, huge financial rewards for
sending as little as $5 to someone on a list or making a telephone call.
How it Works
The simplest chain letters contain a list of names and addresses, with
instructions to send money to the person at the top of the list, remove that
name from the list, and add your own name to the bottom of the list. Then,
the instructions call for you to mail or email copies of the letter to a certain
number of other people, along with the directions of how they should
"continue the chain.
The theory behind chain letters is that by the time your name gets to the top
of the list, so many people will be involved that you'll be inundated with
whatever the chain promises to deliver. One recently circulated email chain
letter promised earnings of "$50,000 or more within in the next 90 days of
sending email."
Reality Check
Chain letters are scams and most of them are illegal. A similar scheme,
many MLM's (multi level marketing) opportunities, also known as pyramid
schemes, claim to offer consumers a way to get rich quick. Usually the
model is you sell a product, refer people, and make profits off of your
referral's sales. The lack of contact information is usually a giveaway to an
offers illegitimacy. Never reply, even to "unsubscribe", because they usually
use this as a confirmation of your email and turn around and email you
again.
The newer versions of the chain letter scam use Paypal to move the money
instead of mail, but they are still scams.
Related Topics: Matrix/Downlines, Paid Email, Paid Surfing
