Nearly everyone who uses electronic mail has at some point received a message concerning some plea or experiment or whatever that includes the specific provision to pass the message on to others.  In essence, these are no different than the postal chain letters that appear periodically in our mail boxes, except that they use a much more effective and inexpensive transmission mechanism -- e-mail -- that makes it easy to spread the message far and wide quickly.  The DOE Headquarters ASSIST constantly unearths these notices circulating around the Internet, and, in all cases, the stories told or the services requested are NOT true.  These messages are hoaxes, often with an unrecognized malicious intent.

While the messages may seem innocuous at first glance, the truth is that they can have significant adverse impact in a variety of ways.  In general, these chain messages are similar.  They often appeal to our altruistic side by alluding to people in trouble.  An example is the American Cancer Society hoax:

JESSICA MYDEK IS SEVEN YEARS OLD AND IS SUFFERING FROM AN ACUTE AND VERY RARE CASE OF CEREBRAL CARCINOMA. THIS CONDITION CAUSES SEVERE MALIGNANT BRAIN TUMORS AND IS A TERMINAL ILLNESS. THE DOCTORS HAVE GIVEN HER SIX MONTHS TO LIVE. AS PART OF HER DYING WISH, SHE WANTED TO START A CHAIN LETTER TO INFORM PEOPLE OF THIS CONDITION AND TO SEND PEOPLE THE MESSAGE TO LIVE LIFE TO THE FULLEST AND ENJOY EVERY MOMENT, A CHANCE THAT SHE WILL NEVER HAVE. 

FURTHERMORE, THE AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY AND SEVERAL CORPORATE SPONSORS HAVE AGREED TO DONATE THREE CENTS TOWARD CONTINUING CANCER RESEARCH FOR EVERY NEW PERSON THAT GETS FORWARDED THIS MESSAGE. PLEASE GIVE JESSICA AND ALL CANCER VICTIMS A CHANCE. ADD ACS@AOL.COM TO THE LIST OF PEOPLE THAT YOU SEND THIS TO SO THAT THE AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY WILL BE ABLE TO CALCULATE HOW MANY PEOPLE HAVE GOTTEN THIS. IF THERE ARE ANY QUESTIONS, SEND THEM TO THE AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY AT ACS@AOL.COM. 

Three cents for every person that receives this letter turns out to be a lot of money considering how many people will get this letter and how many people they, in turn, pass it on to. Please go ahead and forward it to whoever you know- it really doesn't take much to help out. 

Jean Ann Linney, Ph.D.
Professor and Department Chair
Department of Psychology
University of South Carolina
Columbia, SC 29208
PHONE: 803-xxx-xxxx
FAX: 803-xxx-xxxx 

This message contains many of the classic elements of a hoax.  These writers know and use the pressure points that misguide us.  Because the message seems to be beneficent, recipients tend to be receptive to these pleas.  Children tend to elicit a more sympathetic response.  The writers usually include respected entities to gain our confidence, and the use of a (usually fictional) "Professor" as the author is common.  In this case, the reference to the American Cancer Society adds more credence.

The element that differentiates malicious chain letters from other hoaxes is that they target some e-mail address as a central collector of the chain.  Unlike postal mail, where you usually are requested to pass the message up or down a specified number of levels, e-mail makes it easy to include a carbon copy to additional parties.  In the case of the chain messages, there usually is a reference to a particular address that should be included in any further transmission.  This is the target.  As an example, look at another chain letter concerning a "sociological" study (Six Degrees of Separation):

To whomever is receiving this message: After receiving countless forwards at school claiming that everyone in this world knows each other, I decided I wanted to try this theory myself, and use it as my thesis for my sociology class. The purpose of this experiment is to see how many emails I can receive from people that I don't know, that are somehow are [sic] connected to people that I do know. I am also curious to see how many people actually continue this email on. Please forward this to as many people as you know, and send it also to me at my school email address. For example, if you sent it to Jon123@aol.com, Mike123@aol.com, Dave123@aol.com, Chris123@aol.com...also send it to me: MJLENNER@WAM.UMD.EDU. That is my address at school where I will be recording and tallying the results. DO NOT REPLY TO THIS ADDRESS...forward this message to all of your friends and send a copy to me at "MJLENNER@WAM.UMD.EDU". Thanks again for your help with my sociology project. Those who write back to me will receive a COOL gift via e-mail. Thanks. 

The message looks harmless (the closing mention of a gift is an added lure), but it likely originated either as a prank or an attack against a target (perhaps a teacher or fellow student at the school).  The chain letter starts, and we know that they are surprisingly effective and can spread widely in a very short period of time.  The poor target (MJLENNER) now starts getting a few, then dozens, then hundreds, then thousands of messages, completely overwhelming him, likely overwhelming the e-mail system (which has to store all of those messages), and creating traffic that inhibits other functions.  In the previous case, the target was the American Cancer Society, a charitable organization that now has to incur increased administrative costs because of this irresponsible hoax.  Remember, there are likely to be legitimate messages that must be culled from the barrage.  The ASSIST contacted the ACS, and it was obvious that the letter was distracting and frustrating.  Imagine the impact on you if that MJLENNER address were changed to your address.  The results invariably are a flood of e-mail that affects the ability to address legitimate mail, an impact on computing and human resources, and a loss of productivity (not to mention the potential misuse of government resources).  Ultimately, once exposed, we feel a little violated, with someone having taking advantage of our good will.

As with virus hoaxes, the ASSIST's recommendation is to ALWAYS consider any message that recommends universal forwarding as suspect, especially if it also includes a central target address.  To our knowledge, there has never been a legitimate use of this type of communication (and it is illegal to do this through the U.S. mail).  While you may have concerns that a needy charity may be losing some benefit, the damage from these messages is far greater than the minimal possibility that the note is legitimate.  So, as a rule, we recommend that UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES DO YOU PROPAGATE CHAIN LETTERS OF ANY KIND THROUGH E-MAIL.

Thank you for your assistance in addressing this serious problem.

Additional examples of electronic chain mail.(PDF)

Spoofing - What it is and what it means to you (PDF)

Last Reviewed: 6/9/2006