Chain letters were letters I used to really believe in when I was alot younger. If you didn't send the letter within 1 hour something bad will happen to you. You will never find love, Your lover will break your heart, someone you love will die, you will die, you will have 7 years bad luck, and you could in fact go broke because you did not send it. I have recieved and sent chain letters because they told me I would find love in 20 days if I sent it to 20 people. Well this definately did not hold true. Chain letters by some, are fun ways to send your friend's messages. To me it is another piece of junk sitting in my inbox, along with all the spam and other junk mail that annoys me. I guess the concept of getting the letter and rushing off to send it gives some people a thrill and I guess some people have too much time on their hands. The very first chain letter documented was by Daniel W. VanArsdale in 1888. Of course we all know that this had to be by mail, not by the internet. The most popular form of chain letters today though, are of course by e-mail. Many chain letters give you fallacy promises by showing examples of people who have sent the chain letters and people who have not. For example a get rich chain letter would say Suzy sent the chain letter and won the lottery. Tommy sent the letter and within 2 weeks he hit the big time. But Tonya didn't send the letter so she lost everything and is now homeless. The ones that used to bother me when I was younger were the death chain letters. For example you would read a whole story about someone getting murdered, or something else of that ignorant nature and they would list people's names to show "evidence" that good/ bad things happened to these people. Nicole read the chain letter and never sent it she was killed the next day. Todd neglected to send the letter and he died 3 days later. Maggie sent the letter and she lived to be 100. Chain letters apparently do not hold true. They are just stupid letters to keep people occupied with their time hoping to get rich, fall in love, or stay alive by sending them to everyone even if they do not talk to them. We live in reality people don't believe everything you hear from your friends.I read a death chain letter today and I did not send it. I guess you know if I died if you haven't seen me on here in a week...lol