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A Postal-Mail Chain Letter?
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Posted By:
Maegan
in Tampa, FL - USA
Nov 14, 2004
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I received this chain letter in my mailbox:
Dear Friend,
Greetings: I am a retired attorney. A few years ago a man came to me with a letter. He asked me to verify the fact that this was legal to do. I told him I would review it and get back to him. When I first red the letter my client brought me, I thought it was some "off-the-wall" idea to make money. A week and a half later we met in my office to discuss the issue. I told him the letter he originally brought me was not 100% legal. My client then asked me to later it to make it perfectly legal. I asked him to make one small change in the letter.
***
It goes on for another 2 pages about how if you send $1 to the 6 names on the list & you will make $800,000.00 in just 3 months. You pay for a list of names to send letters to. I KNOW this is a scam. I just can't figure out how I got it. It came to me at my married name (junk-mail tends to come to my maiden name), & it came to my actual house address. (My driver's license lists my PO Box & if you look me up at the DMV, the physical address is actually my prior residence...haven't had time to change it yet.) The phone & electric aren't registered in my name, they're registered to my husband. (There's not a water bill, we have a well.)
What I wanna know is: How did this come to me, with my correct name at my current physical address??? The 'person' who sent the letter is: Mr. Louis Jordan/1234 Shakespeare Avenue/Apt # 2E/Bronx, NY 10452
Also, a co-worker recently had someone slip this same letter under his door at his apartment building...Anyone hear anything about this??
Category: Scams; Replies: 1759 |
Comments
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Page 83 of 88 pages ‹ First < 81 82 83 84 85 > Last › |
Cranky Media Guy
Member
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Posted: Thu Mar 11, 2010 | 04:52 PM
I should have said "HAS a motivation to lie to you?" Oops. |
josh
in red man land
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Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2010 | 10:11 PM
media cranky ass da box thing makes no sense cuz new people r always given money to the peeps n da box get it got it ta hell wit u all |
Cranky Media Guy
Member
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Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2010 | 03:14 AM
I'm sorry, Josh, I don't speak Stupid. Could you please translate that into something resembling English? Thanks. |
Nicole
in NJ
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Posted: Mon Mar 15, 2010 | 03:03 PM
I just received this letter today from a rick vaughn in ogden, utah? really strange. i dont know how he got my information... |
Cranky Media Guy
Member
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Posted: Mon Mar 15, 2010 | 05:12 PM
Nicole said:
"I just received this letter today from a rick vaughn in ogden, utah? really strange. i dont know how he got my information..."
Here's a thought. Why don't you see if you can find a phone number for Rick Vaughn in Ogden, Utah, call him and ask how he got your information?
At the very least, it might be an amusing conversation. |
WILL
in NY
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Posted: Tue Mar 16, 2010 | 03:16 PM
Hello, it seems that everyone has an opinion about this and did not try it. What do have to loose if you have nothing already. What if this actually worked an you paid off a bill or 2.
maybe not the millions but a couple of hundred will be good for me. I spend close to 300 a weekend just drinking with my buddies why not put it to better use instead of pissing it all away.
DONT KNOW ABOUT ALL OF YOU BUT IM TRYING IT. |
hcmomof4
in So. Cal.
Member
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Posted: Tue Mar 16, 2010 | 05:42 PM
Will, let us know how it goes... |
Cranky Media Guy
Member
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Posted: Wed Mar 17, 2010 | 01:09 AM
Will, allow me to paraphrase your logic.
"I already waste a large part of my income on alcohol so why not waste even more of it on a mathematically impossible scam?"
Has it ever occurred to you that your prodigious alcohol intake may have negatively affected your reasoning skills? Just sayin'. |
That Darn Blister
in Everywhere
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Posted: Wed Mar 17, 2010 | 03:19 AM
So, Will, you think a felony conviction on your permanent record is worth the $300? |
Ann
in Baltimore
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Posted: Wed Mar 24, 2010 | 05:02 PM
Read the whole thread. Am amazed by Cranky's stamina. Way to go.
I think it comes down to this. Fact: chain letters are illegal because they don't work as they claim to. It is a mathematical impossibility.
The claim of this breed of chain letter is that "if everyone is honest, we can all benefit" (or some variation of that). "All benefit" translates to "everyone will get more money than they put in," in the long run.
This is a false claim, because if everyone truly is honest with this, then at best everyone will just come out even. Not because of low rates of return, not because stamps cost money, but because, as Cranky explains better than me, no new money is actually generated.
I've seen the argument that this could work because new people get involved with every generation, and thus are always adding more money to the pool.
But that also means that there is now a bigger pool of PEOPLE to whom that money needs to be redistributed. Whether you have a pool of 10, 1,000, or 1,000,000 people (or even 1,000,000,000,000,000, if you want to go there), there is no way that there will ever be more dollars available at any given time than there are people involved. (ie, if over time you have exponentially invited 1,000,000 people to join the chain, there is only a total of $1,000,000 to go around between all 1,000,000 of you. Make sense?) The proportions are the same whether you put in $1 per person, or $5. The point is that not EVERY person can get out MORE than they put in, which is the claim of the letter. Hence, the reason Cranky refers to this as "magic money."
When those who try this say they have hope and that they believe, what they are saying is that they hope and believe that they are high enough up the chain to benefit from those under them. When one person puts in 1 dollar and gets back 2, one other person has lost a dollar. THAT is the simple arithmetic. If you have been lucky enough to profit, you have done so at the expense of others. This is not people helping people. If you get money out of it and use it to pay a bill, you're not giving that money back to the "little guy;" you're using it for your benefit, and the people you took it from will never see it again. It's a harsh reality, but it is true. (And don't give me the argument that it's only a $6/person loss; no one would get involved in this if they only expected to get $6 out of it.)
For those true philanthropists out there, there are a million legal ways to help people in your community that don't screw people over. If you are lucky enough to have $200 to throw away, give it to a trusted charity.
For those of you who are in dire straits because of this struggling economy, my heart truly goes out to you. But believe me when I say, this is NOT the way to recover. Put your money into an interest-bearing (yielding?) account. It may grow slowly, but at least you'll know where it is, and know for a fact that it is actually increasing.
God bless. |
Cranky Media Guy
Member
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Posted: Wed Mar 24, 2010 | 11:49 PM
Thanks for the kind words, Ann. Yes, you've summed up what I've said very nicely. I've said just about all those things at one time or another (probably several times, actually) but you said them very succinctly and all in one place, which is helpful.
To anyone who has just arrived at this thread who wants to know the Real Deal about chain letters, just read what Ann wrote. It's all true. You may not want to believe it, but she really has it nailed.
Sad but true, there is NO Magic Money to be had. |
happy magic money
in MY jet
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Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 | 10:13 PM
you people are soo funny if you took as much time to bitch as you did to make money like sending out some letters and asking for people to have generosity to help some one go to school or use the money to give to a charity. then it would be people helping people. like for me i did the letters went to school and became a mechanic that give's the lowest price's and make's a great donation to a new charity every year
so fuck all you dream smasher's that had there dreams jizzed on |
Cranky Media Guy
Member
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Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 | 11:25 PM
Hmm, where to begin?
"you people are soo funny if you took as much time to bitch as you did to make money..."
It's hard to tell since you seem to have only the weakest grasp of the English language but I *think* you said that backwards.
Not that I believe for one second that you actually made ANY money via a chain letter, but if you DID, I would recommend that you spend some of it on literacy classes. PLEASE tell us you dropped out of school before the sixth grade level. If not, you might consider being checked for degenerative brain damage. There seems to be no other logical explanation for your incredible illiteracy. |
Lurch, Jr.
in Addams Family Mansion
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Posted: Fri Mar 26, 2010 | 03:54 PM
"happy magic money" sounds a lot like the "Henry Tyroon" who emailed me this morning with "Who appointed you guardian of the internet? Complain all you want. I'm lmao all the way to the bank!!" after I'd LARTed a bunch of chain letter spammers to Paypal and warned several others that what they were doing was inherently wrong. |
Cranky Media Guy
Member
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Posted: Fri Mar 26, 2010 | 11:43 PM
Is "Henry Tyroon" also a functional illiterate?
Good for you, Lurch. Those people you reported are part of a scam. They aren't doing it to make a lousy six bucks, as Ann pointed out. They also aren't doing it to make YOU money. They're doing it because there are a LOT of people looking for a quick economic fix in this horrible economy and they're ripping them off.
Think about it for a moment, people. WHY is he "laughing his ass off" and who is laughing his ass off AT?
Hey, Lurch, please let us know what action PayPal takes against these people, if you know it. |
happy magic money
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Posted: Fri Apr 02, 2010 | 01:19 AM
if i don't have the best writing skill's it's from being preoccupied with my love of cars and trucks that could put your nerdy lil adam's apple threw your spine. well have a continued pity full life bitching and complaining about how your so smart ppfff please go out side your lil cube and get a grape fruit throw it in the microwave and act like you know what pussy is |
Frank
in Minnesota
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Posted: Sat Apr 10, 2010 | 09:36 PM
So are chain letters illegal? |
Frank
in Minnesota
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Posted: Sat Apr 10, 2010 | 09:38 PM
why would anyone need to find out about the money you make. It's all cash, just bury it in your back yard. |
Cranky Media Guy
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Posted: Sun Apr 11, 2010 | 12:51 PM
Methinks Frank is a troll. |
happy magic money
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Posted: Mon Apr 12, 2010 | 12:14 PM
i think your an idiot cranky media you rage on me for not having the best illiteracy and you cant spell your self your such a dumb ass
it just goes to show you are a fagot that need's a grape fruit and a microwave |
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