The evil power of chain emails
I was thinking about the power of chain emails. There’s a good list of these on Hoaxbusters. People don’t send them to me because they know they’ll get a stern response but my wife seems to get lots of them. People are now sending them to her and then ringing up to apologise. People know they’re bogus and stupid but can’t avoid sending them. There’s something about them that makes them especially compelling. If one could figure it out and apply the principle to more worthy messages, it could be very powerful. There’s a bit of analysis or at least a list of telltales on Get Safe Online.
Bad Language / Apparently, I’ve been tagged wrote:
[...] I had a couple of emails recently from bloggers who I like and respect ‘tagging’ me in some kind of blogging chain mail thingy. If you want to know something new about me, it’s that I really object to chain letters. With a passion that can’t be healthy. I wrote about chain emails early on in my blogging career. So I’m not going to pass this on. I hope there’s no gypsy curse for chain-breakers on this one. [...]
Posted on 13-Dec-06 at 4:36 pm | Permalink
Business Hacks mobile edition wrote:
[...] reader to open and read the email. Think about the subject lines used by chain emails (see my post: The evil power of chain emails) and spammers - made you look! Don’t be afraid to change the title of a long-running discussion [...]
Posted on 14-Jan-08 at 5:02 pm | Permalink