Threatening letters

I've seen them before, many times, but that does not reduce the level of annoyance I feel when I see them again.

I saw another one today.

I'm talking about the chain-letter Emails that start off by promising you good luck, usually with some nauseating poem or fake Chinese proverb in there for credibility. Or credulity, whichever you prefer. Then they change tone: forward this to everyone in the world or die.

Then you get the 'case studies'.

Mr. X followed the instructions and won millions on the lottery.

Mr. Y ignored the Email and fell down a big hole.

Mr. Z ignored it, fell down a hole, then forwarded it and became rich.

It's a total waste of time. Why do people send these things on?

Because they're scared. Soft in the head, naturally. Credulous halfwits, certainly. But scared.

They're scared that it might be true. Oh, deep down they know it's just some idle oaf with too much time on his hands who's pumping out this nonsense just to annoy as many people as possible.

But there's a part of their minds saying What if...

So they forward it. They don't win the lottery. They don't get rich. At least they don't fall down a big hole. Most of them, anyway. The most they succeed in doing is in annoying intelligent people and frightening stupid ones.

If you want to be frightened, read a scary story. You can do that without bothering me. Try this one: www.fromtheasylum.com/october2003/telephone.htm

In fact, have a good old browse through www.fromtheasylum.com and get yourself really scared.

It's better than reading your Emails.

What annoys me most of all about chain Emails is that anyone thinks I will appreciate receiving one of these things.

That's deeply insulting.