Chain Letters

Chain letters are another hyped up scam! Avoid at all costs. These letters can be very appealing and promise you riches in a short amount of time. Do not get sucked into the allure of the letter.

Most letters have the addresses of 3-6 people on them and you are exposed to send each one on the letter anywhere from $1.00 to $5.00 and then your name gets on the list. Then you make copies and send the mailer out to several hundred people and you hope the pattern repeats itself and people start sending you $1 dollar bills. Most often you will not even make back your initial investment of the printing and mailing costs.

I had one sent to me just the other day, probably because I am on just about every opportunity seeker prospect list ever printed in the last two years. This letter came to me from a supposed attorney that had checked out the legality of the letter for one of his clients. After hearing about his clients results from one of the mailings he decided to try it for himself and to his surprise he made $800,000.00. It is amazing the good fortune that falls on attorneys! He had to point out 5 times in the letter that it was legal and that really threw up the red flags for me. Someone that is doing something legal should not have to tell that it is legal repeatedly in the sales pitch, don't ya think! To top it all off the letter did not have a return address. If you are offering a legitimate business opportunity why not have your company's name and contact information on it?

This attorney said all I had to do was send each person on the list a dollar add my name to the bottom of the list and remove the person at the top. He showed me all the math and how it would make me $800,000 on just a $167.37 investment in printing and mailing to 200 people. It sounded really good the only thing is that it is illegal!

I went to the USPS website and looked up Title 18, United States Code, Section 1302, and the Postal Lottery Statute. Within that Postal Code it clearly states, I am paraphrasing, that chain letters are illegal if they request money or other items of value and promise substantial return to the participants. It is legal to send chain letters on things of little value like recipes and such if you don not PROMISE a substantial return to the participants.

The letter the so called attorney sent me might have been legal just asking for a dollar if he had not told me that I was going to make $800,000.

Chain letters have been around for a long time and they are getting more sophisticated so be on the look out. Just remember that they are illegal and if you get caught even reproducing one and mailing it you are guilty just like the person that wrote it.

Look for the signs like promising huge returns, repeated statements of legality, and the lack of contact information. These are tell tale signs that something is not right!

Good Luck and stay away from chain letters.