Chain E-mails

I get these every so often, usually with a prayer or something religious attached, asking me to forward it to ten friends, and telling me I'll be blessed somehow if I pass it on. Sometimes with dire warnings of what will happen if I don't pass it on.

Now, I have two problems with this.

One - I think it's great if someone wants to send a prayer to me. Something that touched them that they want to pass on. That's not my hitch. It's the DEMAND that I send it on that bugs me. If the sender would say - hey, if this touched you too, think about sending it to your friends - I probably would consider it. But the "Send this to ten of your friends! Don't break this chain!" really makes me itch.

Two - inevitably, the sender has sent it to my daughters, my sisters, and any friends we have in common. THEY'VE USED UP ALL MY PEEPS! I don't HAVE ten more people to send it on to. (Not that I'm bitter! Heavens NO!)

And, I suppose, whine #3 - I think it cheapens the spiritual content to make it a chain letter. An encouraging note, a desire to pass on something touching, fine, but don't make it a chain letter, PLEASE!

Okay, whine over.

I couldn't agree with you more sistah. I hate those things. Despire them, literally! Don't send me those things or I'll send Bubba and Earl to see you. And the ones that say, "Take my name off and add yours...what is your favorite color? What is your favorite movie? What did you eat for breakast? Who will respond to this first?" OMGosh...I hate, hate, hate those things. IF YOU SEND ME ONE, I SWEAR I WILL HUNT YOU DOWN.......and hang you from the nearest tree. And then shoot you....then let the buzzards have their way with you.......then hurt you. I mean it.

Strong message to follow.....

whew......

I really enjoy reading the inspirational stories and jokes and definitely enjoy the chuckle that some of these emails bring to my day, but I too struggle with the chain letter aspect of them. I don't have 10 people that I can send things to, either because they themselves have forbidden me to forward chain letter-type emails, or because the sender has already used up the only 10 people who I think would be interested in these things. Once in awhile I'll send the jokes and photos to my brothers, but they're not supposed to receive attachments on their work computers and don't have time to sort through stuff when they're home (and my brother with cancer just doesn't have the energy to sit at the computer anyway).

So I enjoy the emails, the pictures, jokes and inspirational stories (I really enjoyed the recent one about the the tenors), and I share them with my hubby. Then we keep the ones we want to keep and delete the rest after a few days. (My husband actually does print some of them off and share them with his military buddies when they go out for lunch.)

I rarely ever send one along and so far, it hasn't killed me or brought about dire consequences that I know of...on the other hand, sending them to some people WOULD bring about dire consequences!

Just received this today:

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. 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 tele-marketers 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, 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 and then is able to get lists of "active" e-mails to use in spam e-mails, or sell to others that do.






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

Thanks for that informtion, Dianne. I agree...I don't like the send this to so many people either. I occassionally forward something that I think will be meaningful to someone else...but not because it says too!

Some are a worthwhile read and inspirational. Those I keep and may share with a few but, others just get deleted and I never FW. Have you had one that says you've won something? That one is a menace, too.

I am laughing out loud at all these posts. I get SO MANY of these things. And JJ, last night I did one of those with 20-some questions. It was about Christmas and my sister sent it to me with all her answers filled in. It sat in my box for days. I realized how much I enjoyed reading her answers (really, it was very personal), so I filled it in and sent it back to her. I did lots of reminiscing while answering so it turned out to be fun.

I am usually the one who would be MOST LIKELY NOT TO RESPOND!

Now that is why I love my "delete" button. LOL LOL LOL
Cindy

I just got the one about lipsticks containing lead and causing cancer. It turned out to be false, but I had even tried rrubbinga gold ring in a smear of it on my hand. One out of three turned black as it said. One was a clinique lipstick. It didn't turn. The one that did was a lighter color and one I bought in the French store in Epcot. I paid $20 for that lipstick. I'm glad I don't have to throw it away. I hate those stupid things.

Louisa

DELETE, DELETE, DELETE...GONE!!!

I think the emails warning about bad luck if you don't forward them are the worst. They encourage superstition and fear, I hate them and delete them.

I hate them too. It's like emotional blackmail or something.

Yes,
I get upset and forward them and going to stop it Lousia they are scary or scar you half to death that something is going to happen if you don't send them out.

Delete , Delete I will from now on.

I ignore the ones that say if you don't send this to 10 people in then next fifteen minutes the fleas of 1000 camels will nest in your nose, or something equally stupid. The ones I hate are the ones that are a warning of something awful and they sound so sincere, I gladly forward them to warn all my friends and then I get the email from JJ telling me I have been hoaxed (punked) yet again, drat, dang and phooey. So now I hesitate to even forward the sincere sounding warning ones....No good deed goes unpunished!

Well, I for one loved getting your mails Chatty. You can forward them to me any time.

Chatty, I LOVE your emails - hubby too, and my brother too when I forward the ones to him that I know he'd like. Please don't stop. I was hoping that this thread wouldn't deter you from continuing to share them around. You originally added me to the list because you knew I was so lonely and never got any email - well, it doesn't matter how many emails I get nowadays, I always look forward to yours!

You guys are just great and I do still send some after I check them out on hoaxes unlimited. Not the real name but it will do for now. I'm glad when I send one and JJ tells me its bogus because I then hurry and tell everyone I sent it to. Like the one about putting your ATM in number in backwards if someone has you at gunpoint or something. My DIL said a cop told her work place ladies about it, so I forwarded it and guess what, a hoax. Sounded like a really good idea to me, maybe they will start doing that, who knows....

Chatty, I have a friend who checks these out for me on Snopes.com, but sometimes I do it myself. Most emails like that come up a hoax. some people apparently have nothing better to do than sit there thinking up this stuff. Since my husband has been a banker for 46 years, I doubted the one
about the ATM thing. I'm sure he would have known that one. Imagine someone sitting there thinking, "Well how about I tell people to put their ATM code in backwards if they are ever held at gunpoint at a machine?" Or, "Wonder if they'll believe their lipstick will give them cancer?" I had two of those lipstick brands and tried what it said. They did not turn black. However, a third one did. Turns out that is what happens anyway in most cases. It's from the metal. It was hard to get all the lipstick smears off my hand too.

Louisa

I confess I am quilty as charge for getting them and forwarding them Lousia and chatty . We get sucked into this stuff , but do like the love that ask you about yourself and friends . Like what do you do for christmas . No more will they be sent . I get the ones for Freebies from a friend that is nice . Oh, that lipstick one was a hoax from the start Lousia and found that out fast .

Sorry Lousia ,

Renee

They annoy the life out of me, what i didn'tknow was that it was a tracking system for live email addresses for spam, thanks dianna

Oh, I didn't know that either . Good to know and thanks

Renee, you're an angel and some of the stuff you send is sooo funny and makes me smile all day. Keep sending.