Chain Mail Scam
If you have been on the internet for sometimes, you may have received at least one chain mail. This situation is especially true, when you are using free email address and join several mailing lists from the email provider.
So, what is chain mail anyway? Chain mail is an email that has a single purpose which is getting people forward the message over and over again to anywhere around the world. The content of the chain mails may sound like a legitimate letter while some of the chain mails consist of malicious contents.
One of the emails is from parents whose child is having a major surgery while they can not afford the financial burden. That is why they told you to forward the email to anyone as many times as possible. Because they said, the email provider (or any big and famous organization) may help them by giving $1 (or some small amount of money) for every email sent. Another email consist a message from Bill Gates that tell you to forward the mail to anyone to test Microsoft email system and Bill Gates will pay you some amount of money for every email you sent.
Chain mail is a real scam. You must not take any part in it.
One of my friend said that her attorney forewarned her that chain mail is against the law. So, by taking part in a chain mail, you are already breaking a law. Of course this is the last thing a sane person would do.
Another thread that may come from chain mail is email harvesting. These emails are sent so that the original sender may take all the email addresses resulting from the forwarding activities. The original sender might put some tracking code inside the email or just hope that the email might come back to him / her someday. After that, he / she will take all email address available from the chain mail and send SPAMs. They may also rent or sell your email address to other party, which is more likely to be a spammer.
So, next time when you get any chain mail, just erase them without second guessing. By forwarding the email you are breaking the law and you put yourself as a spammer prey. Hope the lesson learned.