Chain Letters

We did mention chain letters briefly in our pyramid schemes review but chain letters are different because of who has put them together, what they hope to gain and how they operate.

For those of you who don't know: A chain letter is a letter that you receive telling you to forward $1 (or more) to five people on a list. You are then instructed to remove the top name on the list and mail the letter out to as many people as you can. The next person will remove the top name and mail as many as well.

This sounds great but there are a few problems:

1. Most people are only going to throw the letter away and not do anything. Probably 99.9%. The 5% returns they advertise are a joke. There isn't any way this is going to happen.
   x
2. Chain letters are illegal. There is no real product or service being exchanged. Nothing people would pay $1 for. Don't be fooled by variations with recipes because they are not legal either.
   x
3. Since the chain letter isn't controlled by any one group, people are going to remove all the names and put on their friends and family. That way they are getting $5 from each sucker instead of $1.

Most people think that some crazy guy or gal started this chain letter but that is really the funny part. All chain letters (without exception) are started by mailing list companies. That is why there are ads for either one or two mailing list companies at the bottom of the chain letter.

They are getting free advertising because when people decide that they are going to sign up with the chain letter, they buy the cheap mailing lists from the company (or companies) that are listed on the letter.

Free advertising (although illegal) is still pretty clever. Now you know the real truth so when you receive a chain letter, you can recycle it or mail the people on the list directing them to this review.

Matt Gagnon