Typically you get solicitations that looks something like the following one
that I received (I removed the name of the school so they would not get any
further mail):
Hello!
We are students in Mr. xxxxx's 4th grade class at
xxxxx Public School in xxxxx, xxxxx.
xxxxx is a small town with a population of
approximately xxx people, located in northeast
xxxxxx.
In Social Studies, we have been studying the states
and capitals, and decided to map an e-mail project. We
are curiousto see where in the world this e-mail
message will travel by the Internet throughout the
rest of the school year. (Ending in May 2001)
We would really appreciate your help with our
project, please! We ask that you do these two things:
1) E-mail us at mailto: xxxxxxx , and tell
us your location (city/town, state/province, country)
so that we can locate it and plot it on our United
States or World map.
2) Please, forward this letter to as many people as
possible, even if they live in the same town as you.
Again, our e-mail address is: xxxxx
In the case above, the school got over one million e-mails and could not
handle all the e-mail that clogged their system. People do not realize what they
are getting into. Also, such letters can be malicious and used to attack
people's systems.
Below is a letter that I send to people who send me chain letters. Feel free
to adapt it to your needs.
Dear xxx,
I just received your e-mail chain letter. I thought that I would write to you to
tell you why I never relay chain letters and why I think that you should not do
so in the future. Chain letters of any sort are not a good idea for the following reasons:
1. They tend to generate huge amounts of e-mail that floods a mail system and makes it extremely difficult to operate.
2. They are often completely bogus and invented by malicious persons who want to attack a particular system. They seem to enjoy creating a mess by having one group of innocent people attack another.
3. They tent to live forever. This e-mail might circulate for years and the
indicated party will still be getting e-mails years after the letter was first
composed.
4. Most reputable organizations want no part of chain letters even if they
are written to support the organization. For example, look at the home page of
the Make-A-Wish™ Foundation (http://www.wish.org)
where they expressly have a section on chain letters (at http://www.wish.org/home/frame_chainletters.htm)
and where they state:"Make-A-Wish Foundation®
Does Not Participate In Chain Letter Or Other Direct Solicitation Wishes".
Sorry to be non-supportive, but my rule is to never support ANY chain letter sort of action not matter what the cause. Many of them are bogus and create problems for the parties who are allegedly being helped.
Sincerely yours,
George Markowsky
