The Peterborough Examiner

   Chained to superstitions?
    Or are you a "chain wrecker," willing to risk years of bad luck, or even a painful death?
    Love them or hate them, "forward-or-else" chain letters often evoke annoyance, dismay and even dread with dire warnings that something terrible will happen if you break the chain or promises of good luck if you comply.
    Spam and scams spread on screens, clogging inboxes, blogs and social sites.
    "Gone are the days of using a chain letter to share recipes, medicinal cures, letters and speeches. The 'well-intentioned' chain letter is now a manipulative e-mail chain that leaves recipients fearful of chain humiliation," says Toronto therapist Deborah Mecklinger, who bucks the chain gang.
    Refuse to press send and "will the sender and all my colleagues be at risk of misfortune? Will the 20 willing participants now not win their millions because I refuse to be organized into a mass response that goes on to torture those that trust me with their e-mail address?"
    She adds: "Call me a chain letter rebel and send me to e-mail chain hell-- but don't send me an e-mail chain."
    Breaking the chain of fools isn't easy. According to chain mail expert John Ratliff, founder of breakthechain.org,"the simplicity principle is the key: The easier it is to do something, the more likely we are to comply. Let's face it, most people can get passionate about a cause if all they have to do is hit the 'forward' button and choose names from their address book."
    It's all about viral messaging today -- evolving from the old fashioned pen-and-paper type, to the fax chain letters of the 1980s, to the e-mail chain letter and, most recently, the chain blog/social media post, says Ratliff. "Many of my readers express frustration that all they ever get from some friends and relatives are bogus virus warnings and political rants."
    Dr. Judith Orloff says that chain letters are a way of creating a community by passing messages on to friends, family and an extended community of people who may not even know one another. Some chain letters are innocent, others a hex.
    "Chain letters may uplift people's spirits because life can be so challenging at times that any promise of good luck, love or happiness is very appealing to people," says Orloff, author of Emotional Freedom.
    "Chain letters can be like wishes in the dark. They can prey on lonely people who are going through a hard time and want a magic answer."
    If you're inundated with junk, it's your own fault: "The more junk you send, the more junk you get," says Ratliff. "That has been one of the guiding principles of BreakTheChain.orgsince it started. Basically, sending and receiving e-mail chain letters puts your name and e-mail address, as well as those of your friends and family members, out in the public for anyone to collect and use as they please.
    "I have received chain letters from folks that have contained, literally, thousands of e-mail addresses in the headers... contacts that would be worth a few bucks to a spammer. When these chains get posted, unchanged, to an online message board, you start to see the problem," says Ratliff, whose site celebrated its 10th anniversary this year, and catalogs approximately 650 chain letters.
    Meanwhile, asks Mecklinger, "How many people want to actually carry the chain on versus the fear of being the one who breaks the chain?"
    She points out that the people who are sent the chain mail are often listed so the "chain wrecker" is up for public exposure! "Having said that, the only thing worse than breaking a chain is making it work -- and thus resulting in my name as 'e-mail chain compliant'. "

COLUMNISTS
1. Sun Media files
Chain e-mail letters can be a headache for anyone, including Sun Media gadgets guy SteveTilley.



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