Not Get Creeped out by a Chain Letter
You come home from school or work. You take off your shoes, turn on the TV and check your email. You look around and see a message. You read it and you realize it's a piece of chain mail with a threat! If you don't forward it to 10 people, you'll get a frightening consequence! What to do? This how-to explains how to deal with this (this also works on comments on such sites as YouTube).
Contents
[hide]Steps
Sample Chain Letters
Doc:Emotional Chain Letter,Scary Chain Letter
Avoiding Getting Creeped Out
- 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 story 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 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.
- Don't send it to anyone else. Doing this stops other people getting it and passing it on and it getting worse.
- 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.
- If you know the person who sent you the email, tell them that it is really bad manners for them to send you nonsensical curse emails and they should stop and think, because they're either panicking over nothing, or else they sent it on as a joke and it just isn't funny, and makes them look like a gullible schmuck for panicking and forwarding something that is 100% rubbish. (Hopefully they'll take the hint and the situation ends here).
- If they send you another email, follow steps 1-7 again.
- If the person sends you 3 or more emails, tell someone else. You can even report them to their internet service provider if they keep sending you unwanted email. The situation is getting out of hand. Tell the person you will block their address if they keep sending you this junk. Chain letters are against the terms of service of many ISPs - they are a type of spam.
- Also, if an email ever says something like, "I will break into your house myself and (enter bad event) you!", you may need to tell an authority (police, principal, etc) but only under dire circumstances such as when it isn't a mere hoax chain letter, but a real threat from an actual person who you know is capable of real violence. (see Warnings).
Tips
- Remain calm when dealing with the email. Don't freak out if you need to confront someone.
- If you point out the unreal parts of the chain letter, you will feel better.
- Tell a friend or family member and they will help you.
- Just remember, everything it says is rubbish! You don't need to be scared. Just think of how illogical it is, laugh at it and hopefully you'll be fine!
- Remember, the story is completely fake and implausible, even by fiction fantasy standards. If the chain letter references anything based on something that is or could be real, that column of truth is only used as a foundation to build up a spectacular tale that is false and designed to scare, outrage, sadden etc. you into doing one thing - spreading the chain letter.
- A rumor based on some event (a dog attacking someone for example) ends up being a chain letter telling you to sign a petition to get some breed of dog completely banned and you really don't want to be manipulated into doing that; what if you or someone you know, owns this type of dog? And it never attacked anyone. Rumors may take one scenario that might or might not have happened and turn it into a sweeping campaign of chain letter forwards scaring and alarming so many people unnecessarily.
- If you are creeped out by it and are afraid, talk to somebody about it. Remember, it's only text arranged on a screen. Think of something funny, enjoyable or entertaining.
- Just remember that when you have been to cemeteries there are no headstones that say "died from not re-posting"!
- Look, if they were real don't you think you would have heard about them on TV or in the news? Every day in the news there would be a headline like "Little girl dies after breaking chain". They can't do anything to harm you and if they were a threat, you'd know.
- Remember, it's all fake! You don't need to be worried about it. People create these things to scare others - it's not real!
- Never ever believe chain mail it's just some mean person who sends you things like this because they have nothing better to do. Nothing will ever happen. But if your really scared talk to an adult.
- If you think about it, you will realize that those words can't physically threaten or kill you, and they do not have any scientific basis.
- If you do get chain mail and it scares you don't pass it on because you are scared because you wouldn't want other people to feel as scared as you.
- Never read the chain letter if you have a weak heart.
- If it says that something will "kill" you early in the morning, consider staying up or sleeping with someone else, whether it's a friend or a parent.
Warnings
- Don't tell the police unless the situation is dire or you feel very suspicious. Try to think it out before acting.
- If you want to reply back, you should think of the possibilities of how they will react. Make the decision carefully and decide how you'll handle it if they take your reply badly. If they scream at you for replying back, telling them the chain letter is junk and not worth getting creeped out over, then you're probably better off without them as a friend, and it's their fault for being such a dunce and choosing to believe a rubbish chain email over you who they were supposed to think of as their friend.
