Famous Chain Letters in History

Chain Letter comes out August 6, 2010, directed and produced by Deon Taylor Enterprises. It features an impressive ensemble of actors and actresses. The premise of this movie appears to be, "Don't Break the Chain," which basically means that some maniac killer appropriately named The Chainman comes after a group of kids who refuse to pass the chain on. If I received a chain letter, I'd probably laugh and delete it as well.

The idea of a chain letter, while seemingly popular, has not been done much on television or the big screen. It will be interesting to see how Mr. Taylor pulls this one together. Much like the Final Destination films, Chain Letter claims to offer some of the most creative deaths ever experienced in a movie! That parallels its tagline, "The Art of Killing."

The first chain letters to ever appear were around before the internet, and even before computers! These chain letters encouraged its recipients to send a dime (which might have been worth closer to a dollar back then) back to the origin and then send 4 copies onward to friends. Variations quickly formed as people realized that more people could be persuaded by empty threats or promises.

The earliest chain letters were copied and distributed primarily through the relatively new printing press. The ability to mass produce large amounts of letter copies enabled these chain letters to continue.

Needless to say, the earliest creators of the 'send a dime' chain letters became rich very quickly. In exchange for a 'promise of blessing' these men got hundreds, perhaps thousands of dollars, which was worth an exponential amount back then! From there, the chain letter continued growing...

Perhaps one of the world's most popular chain letters came from no other than one of the most reputable and highly esteemed companies in existence today. Microsoft Inc.! Bill Gates was falsely reported to be sharing his great fortune to those eager individuals who pass the letter of good news onward. The letter began its circulation in around September of 1999 and has seen countless variations since then.

Why would anybody want to give their money away to people who forward silly messages? But the thing that kept this chain letter going was in fact the high hopes that people placed in the letter. Although quite laughable at first, when people take a moment to think about it, their minds begin to wander and they start thinking, "What if it was true?" Though doubts may still be thick people pass the letter on thinking, "What have I got to lose?"

It's blind hope such as this that also causes millions of people per day to spend tens of millions of dollars on lotteries and gambling. Though the initial investment may seem small, its long-term impact is significant and leads to some of the most circulated pieces of publishing in history.

Bill Gates stated in a 1998 publication of, On Spam: Wasting Time on the Internet, "Even more annoying than spam, in some respects, are hoaxes. I'm acutely aware of this because my name was recently attached to a hoax email message that was widely distributed. People embellished the fraudulent email over time, as it was forwarded from electronic mailbox to electronic mailbox..."

The year was 1999. The class project was to send out an e-mail to their friends to collect replies in the form of locations. Their idea was to take those few replies' locations and place them as pins on a map of the world to find the effect of global internet communication. The concept of worldwide communication was fresh and new, as the internet was still only a minor fraction of what it is now.

These kids expected to get a minor amount of replies, perhaps 100 if they were lucky. In the next couple of months they received well over 20,000 responses! Messages were being received back at a rate of over two per hour. They realized firsthand the power of a chain letter.

The kids were never able to finish their class project, as they simply did not have the 20,000 required pins on hand.

Read more here.

A not so humorous attempt at a chain letter was supposedly started by a group of kids wanting to break a record. In their chain letter they stated that if they kept this chain letter going for only a little longer (again, supposedly since 1986) they would be a part of the Guinness Book of World Records. Obviously that did not work because Guinness never allowed or authorized such a record to be attempted.

These kids did not do their homework.

"Guinness World Records does not accept any records relating to chain letters, sent by post or e-mail. If you receive a letter or an e-mail, which may promise to publish the names of all those who send it on, please destroy it, it is a hoax. No matter if it says that Guinness World Records and the postal service are involved, they are not."

This was a chain letter destined to fail!

The most innocent sort of chain letters, "Pass this on to receive a kiss from the one you love today," are not illegal, though they border on spam and there are quite a few consequences for spam in many services. Not only that but they are annoying and waste time. Chain letters that encourage the recipient to send money to a particular person or cause and then pass the letter on, much like the world's earliest chain letters, are known as a 'pyramid scheme' and are most definitely illegal in many areas.

So why do these infernal things continue to spread!? Continue reading to find out ...

There are quite a few patterns for the chain letter. While many are promises of something positive, most seem to be negative, following the pattern that if you don't pass it on something bad will happen. This seems to be the more widely distributed kind because people have high tendencies to practice in superstition. Nobody wants anything bad to happen to them or ones they love, so in order to prevent such a malady they attempt to stave off a tragic demise.

Here's a list of some of the most popular topics.

Promise of Fortune / Money
Promise of Blessing / Luck
Promise of Love / Romance
Threat of Misfortune
Threat of Bad Luck
Threat of Loss of loved one
Threat of Death