Chain letter

A chain letter is a message that is nowadays mostly spread via social networks (mostly WhatsApp, more rarely Facebook, Twitter, Instagram (Direct), Kik Messenger), more rarely email and, as an almost extinct variant, post. People are asked to copy the letter and send it to several more recipients. In some cases, obscure or dramatic consequences are threatened if one does not forward the letter and thus breaks the chain. On the other hand, those who forward such letters are often promised large rewards. Sometimes recipients are also subtly put under moral pressure to forward the message.

Chain letters serve different purposes:

• disseminate messages, for example appeals for donations, false virus warnings, religious or political texts
• collect email addresses (spam, phishing)
• Starting and maintaining games
• Fraud attempts (Make Money Fast)
• Disruption of communication services (e.g. e-mail)
• Harassment of facilities or persons (stalking, mobbing)
• Surreptitious advertising

Considering the previous points and the enormous wealth of variants, the following classification for chain letters can be proposed. The same structuring is deepened in the study Copy and Paste:

• Magical-religious chain letters (heavenly letters and religious chain letters) (pp. 59-85)
• Profane Chain Letters (Lucky Chain Letters, Money Chain Letters, Political Chain Letters, Pity Chain Letters) (pp. 86-106)
• Criticism, prohibition, persiflage - parodistic, humorous and ludutive chain letters (joke chain letters, antique chain letters, phishing and spam mails, also fortune bread etc.) (pp. 107-130)

Before the Internet age, chain letters were mainly sent by mail. Complaints about chain letters were published as early as 1926. In the Internet age, the dispatch occurs predominantly via social network (see introduction) or e-mail. In principle, any medium is suitable for the distribution of chain letters if there is a sender, a recipient and the possibility of sending messages to several other people. For example, chain mails have also been observed in communities. For this reason, the decisive factor for the definition of a chain letter is not so much its transmission medium, but the content of the message.

Chain letters are typically identified by a direct or indirect request in the message to redistribute it to multiple recipients, usually in the context of promises, pitiful stories, or threats.

Chain letters use the effect of the snowball system to spread. Many, often inexperienced users, hope for the promised profits or results by sending a chain letter. This is especially true if the further dissemination is connected with the request to send money or gifts. Chain letters sent by post, for example, had a list of addresses attached. The recipient was then supposed to send a certain amount of money to the first of these addresses, cross it off before redistributing it, and add his or her own address to the end of the list instead. This gave rise to the hope that, over time, one's own address would move to the top of the list and that the amount of money in question, multiplied by the spreading of the chain letter, would thus benefit the spreader himself.

Organising and distributing pyramid schemes and chain letters is prohibited under criminal law in Austria, with a penalty of up to 6 months. If many people have been harmed, the range of punishment can even be up to three years in prison.

A legal variant popular with schoolchildren was to send a picture postcard to the first address, which meant that after a few rounds you would receive a large number of cards from all over the world.

Chain letters can also be used indirectly to harass people. Here, a request for help, such as a telephone number, is usually given in the chain letter. The victims behind this phone number then receive dozens of phone calls a day from recipients of the chain letter.

Due to the exponentially increasing mass of messages (e-mails), communication systems are very heavily loaded. If, for example, a user receives a chain letter and forwards it to ten other people, who in turn forward it to ten people each, then a theoretical message volume of 100,000 messages is already reached after the fifth recipient. Network operators therefore generally issue a clear recommendation not to forward a chain letter message and not to contact any contact persons who may be named, even if at first glance it appears to be a "good cause" (e.g. a call for donations).

A special form of the chain letter as an e-mail with alleged warnings, for example against computer viruses, is also the so-called hoax.

Starting around mid-2014, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge circulated, which is a special version of a chain letter because of the invitation ("nomination") to follow suit.