Email Chain Letters - Breaking The Cycle

Let's take a look at the major types of email chains and then how you can tell which ones are false.

Petititions and Boycotts - these email chains are very popular and ask you to add your name to a petition and forward it to all your friends. The idea is that when the list reaches a certain size it is collected and put together as a petition. One example of a current one going around is a petition to save the Amazon rainforest. In this particular case, the project that the petition aims to stop was actually shelved by the government of Brazil in May 2000. However, the email is still doing the rounds and thousands of people are signing it for no reason.

The dangerous thing about signing these petitions is that by adding your email address or name to them, your details are then forwarded on and you have no control over where they end up. Adding your email is particularly dangerous as it can be copied by organisations that can then use it to send email spam.
Virus Warnings - these are by far the type that annoys us most. Again, almost all of these are fake. Email virus warnings tend to scare people by using phrases such as "...an official from Microsoft announced..." and "...it will wipe your entire hard disk...".

In reality, not only do these viruses not exist, but they cannot do what the email is claiming. For those using the Internet, these kinds of emails unfortunately create the wrong impression that the Internet is an unsafe place to be. If you get these kinds of emails, check if they are true (see below) before acting on them.

One recent virus hoax I saw advised people to delete a particular file off their computer. Never do this! In this case it was an important system file that, if deleted, would affect the performance of Windows.
Save someone who's sick - some of these emails claim that when you forward them on, someone tracks it and donates money (eg 10 cents) to a sick person. Unfortunately, this kind of email tracking is impossible. Investigating the particular email further will usually uncover it is a hoax.

Other emails suggest that if you forward the email to a certain number of people you will receive good luck. We'll let you decide yourselves whether that's worth it.
Health Warnings - examples of these email chains are "Anti-Perspirants Cause Breast Cancer!" or "HIV Needles Found On Movie Theatre Seat!" and again ask you to forward them to everyone. These chains prey on the (natural) fears of us all but in almost all cases they are again false.
Terrorist Email Chains - since the terrorist attacks in America there have sprung up a number email chains telling stories or making claims about other events that have happened or will happen. It is unfortunate that there are people out there who have created absolutely false stories in order to play on people's emotions at this time.

So how do you tell which ones are false? There are a couple of web sites out there that can let you know, but our favourite is Break The Chain, which can be found at http://www.breakthechain.org. This site has an extensive database and a search facililty that will quickly tell you whether the email you have received is junk or not. We encourage everyone to make use of these facilities and help break the cycle of email chain letters.