? About Chain Letters

If there is a link and you click on it, you can very likely get a virus, or if you open up a letter with an image that can carry a virus. There are several types of viruses, like a Trojan Horse that will allow people to hack into your accounts.

People will also forward chain letters and spread other's addresses to lots of people on their contact list. So, people you do not know (some of them spammers, even if it's just a Mary Kay lady) are given access to your email address through forwarded email. Internet Scambusters says, "If a spammer gets a hold of one of those, do you think they won't grab every address in the message? (We've seen one case in which a message had been forwarded so many times as attachments that it included over 1,100 addresses!) Internet Scambusters, Issue 41, January 18, 2001. Hoaxbusters says that some spammers are deliberately starting chain letters and hoaxes to gather email addresses.

Yeah, I get those ever so often from people too. I never forward them, even though mine aren't attachments. I do wish no one would send them to me.

Dawn

If you knew it was a chain letter why did you open it? there is a little button called delete. unless your cousin had a tag on it to be notified if you opened it or not, she would never know. Its bad luck to OPEN those. Yes some of these silly things do have virus, however you dont get infected with spam. Spam is just junk email. If you have the latest updates and versions of email you can set the email to weed out junk mail and spam right away. It sounds like you need some lessons on proper Email usage. Not trying to sound nasty or mean, but in this day and age, if you dont want to open something that can be potentially expensive to fix its best you do a little more research into emails and virus. Do you have the latest anti-virus protection?

Most contain some type of malware. I never open them. I block people who send them.

Most of those sweet emails we get that say it's national friendship week -- forward to all you friends .... carry a Trojan horse or other type of virus that sends your address book info back to whoever created it. Not only can they into your account but your friends and family also. Delete--do not open.

I will usually send an email to whoever sent it -- I don't open these they contain malware, viruses, Trojan horses or something that will wreak my computer. Please do not send them to me.

Never open them. Sometimes these things are NOT sent by someone, but the letters themselves are programs that hijack a person's e-mail list and send out stuff. So if it looks like a chain, delete it, and if it's not sure, e-mail the family member to ask them about it cause they might have an infected computer.