Chain Letters Are Illegal

WALLINGFORD — The Better Business Bureau (BBB) offices have heard from a number of Connecticut businesses regarding a charity chain letter stating an 11-year-old boy is dying of a brain tumor and would like get-well cards. While there was a young boy, Craig Shergold, who had a brain tumor in 1989, he had a successful operation in 1991 and has long since recovered. However, the chain letter goes on and on.

Over the years this chain letter morphed into a request for business cards and within two years 33 million had been received by the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which had nothing to do with either Mr Shergold or the campaign but whose name somehow got attached as the chain letter mutated. The letter still circulates today and the Make-A-Wish Foundation has placed a disclaimer on its Web site but to no avail… the letter is now unstoppable.

Chain letters began hundreds of years ago in Europe and their three basics forms include good luck letters, make money fast, and charity appeals. The BBB warns businesses and consumers alike that when you send out your own batch of letters in a money making chain that you not only commit mail fraud but you’ve given your name and address to the postal inspectors in the process; you could be arrested.

What can you do when you receive a chain letter in any form? Do yourself and someone else a real favor and throw it away, the BBB said.