Think: What is the chain mail? Is it, "BBQ at my house! I won't like if you don't come!"? If it is, you're fine (it's not really an alarming thing, just a friend who expects you to show up and might be sore at you if you don't). If not, continue on.

Usually at the top there is something such as, "Don't read this" or "Stop". If there is, you should stop and delete it. Chain letters often tell you to "read" or "don't read" as a ploy, playing on your initial curiosity so if you read them, they'll eventually hit you with a bunch of baloney designed to push your panic button or use any other emotion you have against you for one purpose only: to get you spreading it further. However, if you are curious, or a rebel or just want to read it, continue. It's just a piece of text with maybe some graphics and animations. It can't actually do anything to you.

Often the email or comment will be some story, commonly about some monster or fictional dead kid attacking people. Don't lose your head and get scared. There's no such thing as monsters, you've known that since you were small. No chain letter is going to cause one to blip into existence to kill you or anyone else. You know dead people are dead, and can't go around attacking you, pulling you down some nonexistent well or do any of the things these supposedly creepy chain letters claim. None of these creepy stories forwards can actually cause that to happen, either. If you choose to read it, keep in mind the fact that every one of these scary chain email stories are absolutely untrue. Keep thinking this as you read it.

After you read the story, it will say something like, "If you do not send this to ten more people, you will die in two days." Think again: Will this really happen to you? Will you actually die because you didn't send an email? How is it even possible that a made up story and text and pixels created by some anonymous hoaxer can actually kill you? It can't, any more than your computer monitor and keyboard. There's no more chance of a piece of made-up email tracking you down and killing you than there is of your computer suddenly coming to life and giving you a hug or a slap. Chain letter emails are not living beings and they are not magic. They can't physically do any more harm to anyone than an email you personally write.

6

Keep the email. Even if it is absolutely creepy, keep the mail and smash it. Write out all of the things wrong with it and make yourself laugh at the utter ridiculousness of the story and the threat attached. Keeping the message is also a good way of stopping a troublesome emailer: you tell someone (teacher, parent, friend, etc.) you have proof of getting this unwanted email. If convenient, ask anyone else who is definitely not creeped out by the chain letter for their ideas. If you get them to dissect and ridicule the story for the fake-creepy, absurd junk it is, you and probably them will end up having a good laugh over it. This completely turns the tables on whoever actually started the chain letter that creeped out the unthinking, easily scared people who got it before you did and passed it on. Being a chain-breaker is good and never killed anyone.