Early internet

Chain emails and posts have been around pretty much since the internet first came to be.

Chain emails will be sent directly to a person's inbox, whereas a chain post will be issued on a social media site, like a post on a Facebook wall, or a Myspace bulletin.

To illicit a response, similar to the old snail mail chain letters, the emails and posts will try to manipulate or intimidate recipients into passing along the message. They may make threats of bad luck or promises of good luck, or try to scare people with gory stories of murder or hauntings. Sometimes the chain letter will suggest the person reading has won a fabulous prize or is owed money. Regardless of the method, there is always an attempt to stimulate fear, curiosity, greed or superstition in the hopes of spreading the message and in some cases a computer virus.

There are of course never any consequences to not forwarding the emails, but the emotions they illicit are often enough to perpetuate their continued existence.

What went viral?

There are no firm statistics for chain letters as they are generally privately passed from one person to another, but the reach is still known to be considerable.

In one research study researchers looked at two e-mail petitions that circulated within the past 10 years.

One petition in support of public radio began circulating in 1995, and the other, in opposition to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, originated in 2002. The messages had the common characteristic of being widely circulated--the researchers were able to find 316 copies of the public radio petition containing more than 13,000 signatures, and 637 copies of the Iraq petition with almost 20,000 signatures. View petition

Some common chain emails

'Little Dead Girl Clarissa'

Violent/Disturbing content

No circulation date given.

WARNING! Carry on reading! Or you will die, even if you only looked at the word warning! Once there was a little girl called Clarissa, she was ten-years-old and she lived in a mental hospital, because she killed her mom and her dad. She got so bad she went to kill all the staff in the hospital so the -government decided that best idea was to get rid of her so they set up a special room to kill her, as humane as possible but it went wrong the machine they were using went wrong. And she sat there in agony for hours until she died. Now every week on the day of her death she returns to the person that reads this letter, on a monday night at 12:00a.m. She creeps into your room and kills you slowly, by cutting you and watching you bleed to death. Now send this to ten other people on this one site, and she will haunt someone else who doesn't.

This isn't fake. apparently, if u copy and paste this to ten comments in the next ten minutes u will have the best day of ur life tomorrow. u will either get kissed or asked out, if u break this chain u will see a little dead girl in your room tonight. in 53 mins someone will say i love you or I'm sorry

Example 1: Jenny didn't believe this and deleted it without even reading. the whole thing! A few days. later on the monday night, she was woken up by loud footsteps. and heavy breathing, there was. Clarissa standing there with a huge knife

Carmen Winstead Vengeful Ghost

(Violent/Disturbing content)

In circulation since at least 2006

Bullying killed her. There and then, Carmen decided that she couldn't take the bullying any longer. She planned to stay behind, that evening, after school, and tell her teacher what had been happening. Unfortunately, her decision came too late to save her life. After lunch, her teacher announced that the school was holding a fire drill. When the alarm sounded, Carmen and the other students filed out of the classroom and assembled in the yard outside. As the teachers read out the roll call, the gang of five girls decided that this was a great opportunity to embarrass Carmen in front of the whole school during the fire drill. They moved over to where Carmen was standing, near a sewer drain, and began crowding the poor girl, getting in her face and nudging her towards the open manhole. They pushed her and she tripped over and fell head-first down the manhole. When they saw her falling, the girls started giggling and when Carmen's name was called out, they shouted "She's down in the sewer!" All of the other students began laughing. But when the teachers looked down the manhole and saw Carmen's body lying at the bottom in the muck and the poop, the laughter abruptly stopped. Her head was twisted around at an odd angle and her face was covered in blood. Worse still, she wasn't moving. There was nothing any of the teachers could do for her. Carmen was dead.

When the police arrived and went down into the sewer, they determined that she had broken her neck. Her face had been torn off when she hit the ladder on the way down and her neck snapped when she landed on her head on the concrete at the bottom. The police hauled Carmen's body out of the sewer and sent her to the mortuary. Everyone had to stay behind after school while the police questioned all of Carmen's classmates. The five girls lied to the police, saying they had witnessed Carmen falling down the sewer. The police believed the girls and Carmen Winstead's death was ruled an accident and the case was closed. Everyone thought that was the last they would hear of Carmen Winstead, but they were wrong.

Months later, Carmen's classmates began receiving strange e-mails on their MySpaces. The e-mails were titled "They Pushed Her" and claimed that Carmen hadn't really fallen down the sewer, she had been pushed. The e-mails also warned that the guilty people should own up and take responsibility for their crime. If they didn't there would be horrible consequences. Most people dismissed the e-mails as a hoax, but others were not so sure. A few days later, one of the girls who pushed Carmen down the sewer was at home taking a shower, when she heard a strange cackling laugh. It seemed to be coming from the drain. The girl started to freak out and ran out of the bathroom. That night, the girl said goodnight to her mom and went to sleep. Five hours later, her mom was awoken in the middle of the night, by a loud noise that resounded throughout the house. She ran into her daughter's room, only to find it empty. There was no trace of the girl. The worried mother called the police and when they arrived, they conducted a search of the area. Eventually, they discovered the girl's grisly remains. Her corpse was lying in the sewer, covered in muck and poop. Her neck was broken and her face missing. It had been completely torn off.

One by one, all of the girls who pushed Carmen that day were found dead. They had all been killed in exactly the same way and were all found at exactly the same spot. In the sewer at the bottom of the same uncovered manhole where Carmen had met her doom.

But the killing didn't stop there. More and more of Carmen's former classmates were found dead. It seemed that anyone who didn't believe that Carmen had been pushed, was eventually found down in the sewer with their necks broken and their faces torn off. They say that Carmen's ghost is still on the rampage, hunting down anyone who doesn't believe her story. According to the legend, Carmen will get you, whether it's from a toilet, a shower, a sink or a drain. When you go to sleep, you'll wake up in the sewer, in complete darkness, paralyzed, unable to move, hearing cackling laughter all around you. Then, as you scream in horror, Carmen will come and tear your face off. So be careful who you bully, because you just might find yourself on the receiving end of the curse of Carmen Winstead.

FACT: About two months later, 16-year-old David Gregory read this post and didn't repost it. When he went to take a shower, he heard laughter, started freaking out, and ran to his computer to repost it. He said goodnight to his mom and went to sleep, but five hours later, his mom woke up in the middle of the night from a loud noise and David was gone. A few hours later, the police found him in the sewer, with a broken neck and the skin on his face peeled off. Even Google her name - you'll find this to be true. If you don't repost this saying "They hurt her," then Carmen will get you, either from a sewer, the toilet, the shower, or when you go to sleep, you'll wake up in the sewer, in the dark, then Carmen will come and kill you.

Moon Split Miracle regarding Islamic prophecy

No circulation date given.

Subject: MIRACLE. Moon Split

Miracle of Prophet Muhammad

The split of Moon 'Proved by Scientists' Moon Split

This picture shows the location of the "Rocky Belt" which shows the moon was once split. The unbelievers of Makkah said to the prophet that if you are truly a prophet split the moon and if you do we shall believe. It was a full moon that night...

And so the prophet prayed to Allah to grant him this miracle, and the moon was split. half was seen over Mount. Saffa, and the other half was seen over Mount. Kaikaan.

The people said that the prophet has placed a spell on us, however if he played trick on us, then he cant play trick on all the people in the world! Abu Jahl then said: "let us wait until the people of Albadiah come, and if they saw the moon split, then it is true, if not then we all know it was a trick of magic. When the people of Albadiah came they said that they too saw the moon split, and the disbelievers said "oh, how powerful Mohammad's magic is!" Then Allah revealed Surat al Qamar: "The hour has come near and the moon has split, and when they see a sign, they turn and say 'this is a continuous magic' and they disbelieved abd followed their desires..."

This took place in the days of the prophet Muhammad in Makkad.

In one of Dr. Zaghlool Al-Najaar's seminars, in one of the British universities said: "The miracle of the splitting of the moon has been proven recently"... "One of the british brothers who is very concerned about the state of Islam "Dawood Musa" who is the new chairman of the British Muslims party said "While he was searching for a religion, a friend gave him a copy of the Quran translated in english. he opened it & came across surat Al-Qamar & read "The hour has come & the moon has split", looking at this he said 'The moon has split?! he then stopped reading & did not open it again.

Then one day while watching a program on the BBC, the broadcaster was talking with 3 American scientists, & the broadcaster was blaming America for spending billions of dollars on space projects, in a time where millions of people are suffering from poverty. The scientists were trying to explain why it is important to go into space exploration. Soon the scientists came to discuss the most expensive trip tp the moon, which costed about $100 billion, so the broadcaster asked them "So to put the American flag on the moon you spent this much money?!"

The scientists stated that this much money was spent because they were trying to study the internal structure of the moon to see what similarities it has with the Earth, & they said that they were surprised to find a 'Belt of Rocks' that goes from the surface of the moon right to the inner depths.

Being quite surprised, they gave this information to their geologists, who were also surprised, as they concluded that this couldn't be unless the moon was once split & resealed. The rocks on the belt are a result of the impact during the time that 2 halves of the moon recombined.

Watching this brother Dawood Mussa jumped off his seat screaming "This is Muhammad's miracle which occurred more than 1400 years ago, & now the Americans are spending billions of dollars to prove it to the Muslims. He then said "This must surely be a true religion, & so, where once Surat Al-Qamar was a cause for him disbelieving in Islam, it was now the reason for him embracing Islam...

Please don't break this chain, send it to all u know.

Prayer request for woman with cervical cancer

This is a mutated chainmail starting from a genuine prayer request in 2001. Cindy Hogman went into remission in 2002 but the chainmail still circulates with many altered details and additions.

Subject: Fw: Fw: Fwd: Prayer Request

Prayer request for Gary and Cindy Hogman - don't delete please!

Gary is serving in Iraq while his young wife is fighting cancer here.

Prayer is a powerful thing. THIS COUPLE NEEDS OUR PRAYERS. PLEASE read this. IT MUST BE TERRIBLY DIFFICULT TO BE IN IRAQ WITH A SICK WIFE AT HOME.

Tough times don't last... Tough people do.

My name is Gary Hogman. Some of you receiving this know me, some do not. My wife, Cindy, is 32 years old and has just been diagnosed 3 days ago with stage 4 cervical cancer and her chances for survival are very slim.

She was pregnant with our second child and had miscarried recently at 3 months, and now we know why. This is a request for you to forward this e-mail to everyone you know asking for prayer. The more people that pray her to be healed, the better.

Pray and forward. It only takes a second to hit 'forward'. Please do it and don't delete this, your prayer can, and perhaps will, save her life. Please pray and ask everyone you know to pray for the HEALING of Cindy and the removal of all cancer in her body, so she may enjoy all that life has to offer, and to continue to be the wonderful Mother to our 5 year old son Michael. The power of Prayer is unsurpassed.

I want the whole world to have her in their prayers the next few weeks. God will hear our cry. Please do not be offended by my plea.. This is only a request for your help.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading this and helping with our request for healing! No words can express the power we have when we each do a little to come together.

Regards, Cindy's husband -Gary

Thank you, and please send it to the far reaches of our world. Thanks, God Bless you all.

Prayer request for an 11 year old boy with cancer

Circulating since 2005

Subject: Prayer Request from Peggy Lesley

Special Prayer Request from Peggy Lesley at Brookwood Church . I am starting a signing for my son's best friend who has cancer (Hodgkin's Lymphoma). He is 11 years old and is not doing well at all. He was diagnosed with this cancer 2 weeks ago and the tumor is next to his jugular vein and entwined in it...has moved his wind pipe over a inch making it hard for him to breathe.

The tumor is the size of a large eggplant and is sitting right above his heart. This little boy needs all the prayer he can get. I would like you to sign this and pass it on to as many people as you can. Once we get to a thousand people can you please send this back to me at: [Email Address Removed]

When I get the 1000 people that have signed it...I am going to print this up for my sons best friend and show him how many people care and how many people are praying for him to get better. If you have a heart at all, you will all do this for me. I love this child as though he is my own and we really need all the prayers!

Thank you, Peggy Lesley - Brookwood Church 4th and 5th grade Volunteer Coordinator

Hit FORWARD and Add your name to the bottom of the list and send it out to as many people as you can and pray for him! [List of 795 names removed]