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 :

1. For those who already know about the hoax, it's a nuisance to read the repeated warnings multiple times.
2. For people who know or understand that it is a hoax, its a time waste reading about it.
3. For people who don't know its a hoax and are duped into believing, it causes needless concern and hampers their productivity.
4. A lot of time and energy is wasted in declaring the hoaxes as a hoax and reassuring people.
5. 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.

I have also included links to websites where you may buy any of these products! Make your friends more jealous of you than anyone else in the world. I have listed websites to buy these items from as well. These products are legal in most places but, if you select something you would like to buy, please look up state laws about the buying and use of that product.

It is your responsibility to follow the law and I will take no responsibility if you do something wrong with one of the items I will show you where to buy. Please comment this article with opinions or suggestions! Thanks for the feedback!

1. A Laser

   
   
   We've all seen 007's watch, that red laser can cut through anything it needs to. Now in our developed world we have technology that does better; lasers in any color of the rainbow. They are so visible in daylight you need to wear protective glasses just to look at the beam.
   
   Although they cannot fit inside a watch yet, these military grade burning lasers are only the size of a pen but can cut like a knife, light things on fire, and have their beam be visible any where you point it; hundreds of miles away! Although many places sell these lasers, to get ones with power, beauty, and the ability to make you the feel like a ninja, you have to go to a place rightfully called WickedLasers.
   
   
   
   If you for some reason require a laser that does not look as nice on the outside but works just as well and has a beam just as bright, a laser that is not visible to the naked eye, one that turns on with a unique key, or one that is yellow or orange go to LaserGlow. Both these websites are great.
   

2. Lock Picking Tools

   
   
   Most of us don't care to use our shoulder to break through locked doors, and many doors cannot be broken. Here's where these tools come into play. You can buy little metal skeleton keys called picks to lock pick doors.
   
   Don't have the skill needed to pick the lock? Buy a lock pick gun which does it for you or a lock picking training device. If this isn't your thing and you already have access to a key get a key mold kit which comes complete and ready to duplicate any key you've ever seen. All these items can be found at the lock picking section in The Spy Store.

3. A Tracer

   
   
   Admit it. You've watched a lot of Hollywood in your lifetime and from 007 to StarWars films have had many scenes where people trace each other with small gadgets they slipped onto each other.
   
   Thanks to Global Positioning Satellites (GPS) this is now no large feat to do. You may buy a small box, less than half the size of a cigarette box which you can then stick, using the built in magnets, onto anything you want to trace. Then you can monitor the position of whatever you happened to be tracing all the way to Hong Kong.
   
   Some of these GPS trackers can be found at this website.
   

4. Intrusion Gear

   
   
   Any good undercover operative can enter any facility. Even without permission. Apart from lock picking, which is for the patient man, you can get in like a ninja or like Jackie Chan. These websites will sell you anything from fire department forcible entry tools, to grappling hooks, to metal rope ladders, to suction cups.
   
   Although the suction cups are not meant for climbing, some one-handed cups can hold up to 75 pounds so with a couple cups and a lot of creativity you should be ready to go. Check out Ninja Gear at Tbo-Tech. Find Locksmith Equipment at The Spy Store.

5. Biometric Security

   
   
   Security using your one-of-a-kind body is the best there is. Although things like voice recognition, palm, hand and fingerprint scanning, iris and retina reading, hand vein imagery, facial 3d modeling verification, and DNA testing security devices are harder to buy as they require you personal information, what you need it for, and a price quote these high end security devices were too cool not to be included on my list.
   
   Here's where you can buy some of these from well known brands such as Panasonic.
   

6. Secret Surveillance: Audio and Video

   
   
   Here's where the word "spy" comes from. Using these gadgets you may record audio and visual data within a large radius, or though a specific device such as a phone. You can do all this without being detected using special equipment.
   
   
   
   These Microphones and cameras can be smaller than the nail on your pinky finger and can be on constantly or activated by sound or motion. You can even get cameras that see in the dark or mikes which can pinpoint sounds a hundred feet away.
   
   To be able to monitor your targets with precise accuracy and secrecy go to the audio or video site at The Spy Store.
   

7. Virtual Secret Surveillance

   
   
   Ever wished you could know every single thing somebody did on a certain computer? And all their passwords? Well, this is now possible. Using simply a small plug-in device, the size of a nickel, between a person's keyboard (even a wireless one) and their computer, you can see hundreds of pages of text that they type no matter what it is. You can monitor every single button they press on their keyboard. No software is involved in this process; you simply set a password on the device and plug it in.
   
   When it has been recording a good deal of time you can take it out and plug it into your own computer enter the password and Viola! You can see everything they've typed. If you do not want to have to retrieve the device you can have what it has recorded sent to a website, email, or FTP server.
   
   This device can be left in for years on end. You may also buy software that does exactly the same thing and at the same time records the person's screen.

8. Self Defense

   
   
   Now that your going to be a real spy your going to need some serious protection. On the website below you can buy anything from Martial arts and ninja weapons, to police batons, to stun guns and tasers disguised as cell phones (just like James Bond), to pepper spray disguised as lipstick, to handcuffs and thumbcuffs, to blowguns which shoot tranquilizer darts 200 feet using only your breath. These are mostly non-lethal weapons but always use the utmost caution.
   
   
   
   For some real butt-kicking power check out the following website.

9. Counter Equipment

   
   
   Of course, now that you have bought the necessary accessories and become a double O, you have made enemies, use these gadgets to prevent them spying on you. They have bug sweepers to see that no one is spying on you through your Phone, fax, or computer, or with hidden microphones and cameras. Also in stock are anti-tracers so as to jam, and not to be tracked by, GPS.
   
   If you want to protect your computer from spies, buy a Government Grade Computer protection program which will save you from stealthy spy programs monitoring your computer. You can find them all on the websites below.
   
   Did you know that no matter what you delete on your computer, even "permanently" is never really gone? No matter what you do, even if you are a good programmer and delete the cache, the 1's and 0's are still there in a non-accessible piece of your hard disk. This information is kept there for the government to see. If you are paranoid or simply want to get something off your computer forever, so as to not be haunted by it, you can get the software you need today.
   
   If you have information on a person spying on you it is possible to find out who the person is with their living address, email address, telephone number, or car license plate.

10. Other Really Cool Equipment

    
    
    Here are some other cool necessities. On these websites you can find a USB SIM card reader which will allow you to see anything on a person's phone, even deleted items such as text messages, simply by plugging in the SIM card. You may also find some hand-held lie detectors and generic versions of previously listed spy equipment.
    
    
    
    Also the website below is most likely the best spy website in existence! It has the widest selection of high tech gadgets anywhere including cell phone jammers and REAL X-RAY GLASSES that see through clothes; they are most likely illegal but still interesting.
    
    The glasses cost a ton but the camera costs only one tenth the price. Check it out you'll be impressed.

Other Cool Websites:

Here you can buy a lot of really cool gadgets, shirts, and many forms of caffeine that any true geek would love.

Here you can buy anything from radioactive uranium, to dangerous chemicals, to meteorites, to Van De Graff machines and Tesla coils, to lab equipment, to rare substances, to X-ray machines, to phosphorous items, to cloud chambers, to the strongest magnets in the world than can lift 800 pounds and only the size of your fist!

I hope you enjoyed this and found it interesting. Use your powers for good, for with great power comes great responsibility (yes I just ripped off Spiderman).

Again, I didn't follow the whole story but if this is true then can you imagine the money thats already been laundered through these programs? Its amazing to me that no matter how good security is on these types of on line payment sites, criminals can always come up with a way to get around it.

I guess e-Gold and Paypal and all other online payment sites are going to have to start to crack down because within time it can become a much bigger problem then it is now. I personally don't think they will because either way pay pal and e-gold have their fee's so why would they crack down and lose money?

If you ask me, everybody is out to make a fast buck whether its legal or not. People don't really care but e-gold and pay pal have found a way with their fee's to cash in on the money laundering thats going on through their sites.