I can't stand them! There is always some kind of claim that something terrible will happen if you don't participate. I've gotten so many of them over the years, for lottery tickets, even for underwear! And I never answer them and send anything on.

My son got one the other day claiming that it is for The Guinness Book of World Records, for the longest chain letter. It says that all you have to do is to mail it to 7 of your friends, under the age of 16, and write "Guinness Book of World Records", where the stamp is supposed to be. Believe it or not, it was still mailed to our house without a stamp on it. Then it claims that you have to send it by mail, so that the post office knows who the person is that broke the chain. The whole thing about this one bothers me more than any of them because it targets kids in particular. What kid is going to want to be the one responsible for breaking the chain? I don't know, it probably frustrates me more than it needs too. Anyway, I checked into it, and everything I've seen and heard about it says that it is indeed a hoax. Here is a link to the Guinness Book website: http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/mediazone/general/060505.aspx I just wanted to pass the info on in case anyone else gets one of these.

I'm with ya, Pam! Here's a funny one on the subject- hope the link works.

http://info.org.il/irrelevant/may02-smilepop-soapbox4.swf

It is great! I need to bookmark that one.

This reminds me of when I used to work in a print shop. I'm pretty sure we had a customer order a chain letter to be mass-produced one time.

Not kidding, no. I can't remember the specifics, but I do remember her getting a couple hundred of them made up. She had written them out on notebook paper by hand and had us type-set and run them for her. Very nice lady. And apparently very financially secure.

It's not only letters and Emails. I've also received texts on my cell phone but have told anyone sending them I will NOT be forwarding them on. Loved the cartoon link :haha:

I'm with you too, Pam! :peace: Chain letters are the worst!!

I've seen that one before Prairie Wind---that is SO funny!! And SO true!!

I don't mind the "friends chain letter thingys" (that people send you on ur comments on myspace or whatever) Just hate the e-mail forward ones! they are so annoying at times..Sometimes a friend would send me like 10 at a time!!

I never gotten one threw mail before, but if i did i would just ingore it!

Ironic...I just was sent this from a friend:

From Snopes.com

If you are going to pass something along . . . . let it be THIS!

To whom it all concerns:

Just a word to the wise. E-mail petitions are NOT acceptable
to Congress or any other municipality. To be acceptable,
petitions must have a signed signature and full address.

Same with 'prayer chains' -- be wary!

Almost all e-mails that ask you to add your name and forward
on to others are similar to that mass letter years ago
that asked people to send business cards to the little
kid in Florida who wanted to break the Guinness Book
of Records for the most cards.

All it was, and all this type of e-mail is, is to get names and
'cookie' tracking info for telemarketers and spammers
to validate active e-mail accounts for their own
purposes.

Any time you see an e-mail that says forward this on to '10' of your friends,
sign this petition, or you'll get good luck, or whatever, it has either an
e-mail tracker program attached that tracks the cookies and e-mails
of those folks you forward to, or the host sender is getting a copy.
Each time it gets forwarded, then it's able to get lists of
'active' e-mails to use in spam e-mails, or sell to others that do.

Please forward this notice to others and you will be providing
a good service to your friends, and will be rewarded by
not getting 30,000 spam e-mails in the future.

(If you have been sending out the above kinds of email,
now you know why you get so much spam!)

Check it out:
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/petition/internet.htm

Thanks for passing that on, Amy!! I am so glad that I don't forward those emails on!

wow..never knew that

i hate them with a purple passion