So the last two types of chain letters are Hoaxes or Urban legends and Humorous or Just for Fun type.
5. Hoaxes/Urban Legends
Hoaxes are deliberate attempt trick a group of people into believing or accepting, that what is being said is true when in fact it is false. In an instance of a hoaxes are usually created to cause embarrassment to an audience by having them believe something that is not. The information or media in a hoax is presented in a way that it sounds as something real or believable to human understanding but in fact it is false.
One of the biggest story's on the internet was that just by reading a message with "Good Times" in the subject line will erase the hard drive, and destroy the computer's processor. Warnings about Good Times had been distributed on mailing lists, newsgroups, and displayed on numerous message boards. Obviously, it was a hoax, but a lot of people believed it. It had raised a lot of concern and the email was doing the rounds all over the world.
Another rumour that had spread rapidly via word-of-mouth, email, phone and sms claimed that simply receiving a cell phone call from certain numbers will activate a terrible virus that causes brain haemorrhage and death. According to the message, the phone calls created high frequency tones that damage the user's brain, causing fatal injuries. It said that the killer numbers will appear in red colour. It had caused terror through the east Asian countries. The impact was such that even news channels and media were covering the story. Needless to say that again it was a hoax without an ounce of truth in it.
Why hoaxes are undesired :
For those who already know about the hoax, it's a nuisance to read the repeated warnings multiple times.
For people who know or understand that it is a hoax, its a time waste reading about it.
For people who don't know its a hoax and are duped into believing, it causes needless concern and hampers their productivity.
A lot of time and energy is wasted in declaring the hoaxes as a hoax and reassuring people.
The hoaxes unnecessarily cause a wave of panic. It is interesting to know how sometimes even educated people all over the world get fooled by them. From government agencies to media people, all fallen victim to the stories.
Please remember : You can't get a virus just by reading an e-mail. But please never open any attachments on unknown emails.
6. Humorous or Just for Fun
This category of chain letters are sent out just for fun and a few laughs. Most of our regular forwarded messages fall into this category. These type of chain letters have become popular on social networking sites like MySpace in the form of bulletins and on Youtube in the form of video's and comments. On Facebook and Orkut they are through messages, scraps or applications. Such chain letters are often sent with the promise of providing the person with some information once they've forwarded the message to umpteen number of people.
More famous and recent ones in this category are the ones wherein you are suppose to forward a story, a message or click to receive a video of some popular celebrity caught off-guard or in an awkward situation. Or you could have been promised to receive an extremely funny clip like the Ronald McDonald beating up the Taco Bell dog one. Sometimes some part of a story needs to be passed on to read the next or continued part of an intriguing story that you were caught up in reading. Since its another online practical joke the promised chapters of the incomplete story never show up. Neither does the video or the McDonald clip.
Another such email explains how any picture that you see on the computer is made up of pixels and its detailed graphics. Next it promises to capture your current image without the need of a web camera. But when you click the ‘button' a mocking gorilla's picture springs up on the screen. You realize that you were taken for a ride.
Remember receiving the chain letter distributed on MSN Hotmail with the subject ‘Hey it's Tara and John the directors of MSN'. The body states that your account would be deleted if you don't sent the message to everyone on your address book. Or the one doing the rounds on Orkut where it said ‘Orkut is deleting accounts'. They too could fall in the category of leg-pull's.
Some emails mimic the form taken by their money-generating cousins, those who receive these obviously know that its a joke. These mailings are only meant to bring some smiles to the recipients and that it that. One such humour chain letter instructs unhappy wives to bundle up their good-for-nothing husbands and mail them to the woman whose name appears at the top of the list. And then add their own name at the bottom. When someone's names arise to the top spot they are guaranteed to receive thousands of similarly-discarded husbands, some of which might prove worth keeping. It also warns in the end ‘not to break the chain,' and then goes on to say, one woman who did so, got her own husband back.
Someone had sent me this email and this time I could not resist hitting the forward key.
Hi!! I have lost my HB pencil with a rubber attached. The pencil costs Rs.3/. If u forward this msg I will get one paisa from XYZ Bank. If you have a heart and want to help a poor child in need, plz fwd it to atleast 10 friends. Please don't neglect. Otherwise my mom will scold me. If you forward it then your life will change for ever. Good Luck will come to you for wasting time & forwarding this nonsense message. May God bless you.
The most ridiculous forward was the one that stated how Bill Gates had just fixed a deal with the Pope to buy the Catholic Church and use Vatican City as an international headquarters to sell religious software and gain a controlling interest in Church affairs.
Some believed in the story because of Microsoft's incredible market power, but they didn't realize how ridiculous the whole idea of any company purchasing a major world religion was. The email said that priests would listen to confessions on-line via the new Microsoft Network. And that people could receive Communion without having to leave home, now how dumb could one be to believe all this!
This email was suppose to be a joke, but many people missed the humour in the story. So what had actually started out as a joke became a huge hoax as more and more people believed in the story, to the extent that both Microsoft and the AP had to send out press releases denying the purchase of the Church and denouncing the hoax. You never know what people will believe.
