Dear Casper: Please Stop Forwarding Chain Letters

I have ALWAYS hated chain letters, and I'm talking even prior to the internet, when you had to physically mail stuff. For one, I don't believe in luck. Second, the entire premise of a chain letter is a waste of time. Don't just take my word for it though.

Wikipedia has the term "chain letter" broken down into two distinctive types:

1. Hoaxes: Hoaxes attempt to trick or defraud users. A hoax could be malicious, instructing users to delete a file necessary to the operating system by claiming it is a virus. It could also be a scam that convinces users to spread the letter to other people for a specific reason, or send money or personal information. Phishing attacks could fall into this.
2. Urban Legends: Urban legends are designed to be redistributed and usually warn users of a threat or claim to be notifying them of important or urgent information. Another common form are the emails that promise users monetary rewards for forwarding the message or suggest that they are signing something that will be submitted to a particular group. Urban legends usually have no negative effect aside from wasted time.

There you have it. Even if all it does is waste my time, it still pisses me off. Unless you're a grandparent (of at least age 60), I will not give you a pass on this one. Older folk have more free time on their hands and some are just learning their way around the web and social media. But if you know better, as in you're just sending it along because of some The Ring-type fear, I might have to unfriend you.

It's nothing personal. Oh wait... yep, it is.