How to Start a Chain Letter

Last Updated: June 12, 2021

Chain letters are messages written to a person, that attempts to get the person to copy the message and send it to a specified number of people, word for word. Chain letters often include stories, jokes, poems and scary stories and some may threaten the reader with bad luck or to be killed the same way as a character in the story, if they do not copy the message and send it to the specified number of people. Of course, these threats are a part of the joke, and do not mean to truly threaten the person in any way (though some people believe these threats). This article is by no means an article to show you how to spam web pages or threaten people, but rather how to start one of these chain letters.

Sample Chain Letters

Sample Emotional Chain Letter

Sample Scary Chain Letter

Method 1

Method 1 of 1:

Starting Your Own Chain Letter

1
Understand the format of a chain letter. Chain letters usually include a story, poem, joke, recipe, quiz, a bunch of mis-attributed quotes, political rant, dire warning, or any combination of the above. The more outlandish and dishonest the better, since, as a chain originator, you're not going for accuracy, you're trying to be a jerk and manipulate as many people into passing on this kruft as possible. Then comes an attempt to get the reader to copy the message and send it to the specified number of, or as many users as possible. Read the examples on the side of this article for some examples.
- Example letter from "Mary"
  - If you're reading this you can't stop. Hi my name is Mary. I'm 15, I have long black hair, and no nose. I'm in a white dress, and if you don't copy this on 5 other videos, I will stand behind you with a knife, and kill you. If you do I will give you a prize.
2
Come up with a joke or story. Any combination of jokes, a scary story, or a joke to get a free computer from IBM are all typical chain letter jokes. You can write one of these typical chain letters, or write something creative.
- Example joke story:
  - A few years ago, two parents went out for dinner. A few hours later, the babysitter was calling to ask if she could cover up the clown statue in the kids' room. The father said, "Take the kids and get out of the house. We'll call the police, we don't have a clown statue." The "clown statue" is really a killer that escaped from jail. If you don't post this letter on to 10 videos tonight, the clown will be in your bed at 3:00 am with a chainsaw in his hand.
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3
Find a way to get the reader to spread the message. If you wrote a scary story, like the clown story, you can say that if they do not copy the message and send it to a certain number of people, the same will happen to them. If you wrote a joke, you can just say to copy and send to people. Love chain letters often have a number of people they must be sent to, and if it is sent to 5, something will happen, 10, something else will happen, etc.
- Example viral trigger:
  - Don’t delete……if you love someone…. This is scary. If you don’t, the following will happen to you …. (you will find out later on). Now listen……… you will probably think…. This chain letter, like most chain letters, is full of crap and does not work. But guess......
4
You can also use the guilt-trip angle, this usually accompanies a mushy or sad tale. See the infamous Billy Evans article as an example.^{[1]
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5
Decide how you will send it. You can send it in mail, email, or post it as a comment for a certain thing. If posting online, be wary of what the site considers spam. Obviously, you don't want to post chain letters on wikiHow, your comment may be removed.
6
Send the chain letter.
7
Be patient. It takes a long time for a chain letter to be spread to many people. You yourself may have to send it to many people to get it going, because many people do not obey the orders in a chain letter.

Community Q&A

Question

Where do people get chain letters?

Community Answer

Some people make up their own chain letters, while other people copy from the internet.
Question

Where do I find some of these on the internet?

Community Answer

Searching up "chain letters" in an image search should give you plenty of examples!

Warnings

Realize that some people really believe in chain letters. Although it cannot be confirmed, it is believed that an anonymous recipient believed the chain letters they received, and had to take counseling.

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Certain types of chain letters can be illegal in the United States, specifically, pyramid schemes or similar topics. It is advised that you don't go beyond jokes, love stories, and scary stories. It is advisable not to start chain letters at all since they are manipulative junk, annoying at best, fraudulent at worst.

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Do not by any means include any harmful software with your chain letters! You could be prosecuted for including any malicious words, and they can be very harmful.

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Do not include anything to do with you. If you say "If you don't forward this to 10 people i will stab your sister"They could call the police.

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