Mars Hoax: The Real Purpose of Email Chain Letters

I just recently read that there was an email chain letter being sent around that told people Mars will loom in the sky Friday night (8/27/10) and that we would be able to see it just like we are able to look lovingly at the moon every night. While that sounds awesome and all, the truth is, it’s a hoax. A Mars hoax.

Even though Mars is our neighbor in the solar system, their orbit around the sun ensures that we never meet. And if we ever did…well, let’s just say it won’t be a happy reunion.

So if the Mars hoax, and other email like it, is fake then why do people start these crazy rumors and encourage others to send them to their friends. Well, some do it for fun. Some do it because they don’t know any better. But the overwhelming majority of people that start these letters and send them around are spammers.

That’s right. Spammers.

It’s pretty clever when you think about it. You create a compelling email that people can’t resist sending to other people. It could be a motivational email filled with cutesy sayings, a fake email claiming something outrageous, like the Mars Hoax, or an email that taps into people’s greed, like the emails that say Bill Gates will send you money if you forward it to 10 of your friends. And then you add a special tracking device within the email that sends you the email address of each person who opens the letter which will allow you to collect thousands of emails as the chain letter runs its course.

A real life example: I used to have a private email address that I only gave out to family and friends. I never got spam. Never ever and I had had that email address for at least 3 years.

Then I gave that email address to a friend so we could keep in touch. Little did I know, they had a love of forwarding chain letters. As soon as they began forwarding those chain letters to me, I began receiving spam. On top of that, I started getting chain letters from other people in the chain mail loop who now had my email address and felt compelled to send me more of that crap. It was out of control.

And even though I’ve now managed to get out of that loop, the damage was done. Once you get on a spammers mail list, your email account is doomed to receive offers for Viagra, dating sites, and penis enhancement for the rest of your internet life.

The lesson here is, next time you get an email that seems too good to be true don’t forward it. You’ll only be adding to the problem of spam. If you really must forward an email chain letter to your friends and family, us the BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) function. This will mask the email address that you have forwarded to and prevent others from obtaining it.

Before you do that, though, you should check to make sure that what the email says is true (Snopes is a good place to start for busting Mars hoaxes and other untrue tales). Especially when it comes to “prize” emails that claim you will get something if you send the email to all of your friends. Because generally, all you’ll end up getting are angry friends and tons of spam. And what kind of prize is that?

MicroInfoSource is an information portal that provides tidbits of useful information on a range of topics including marketing, home based business, holidays, fashion, home improvement, celebrities, product reviews, and much more.