# I got my first proper mailed chain letter today. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 10, 2005, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-got-my-first-proper-mailed-chain-letter-today/307706 "2005-06-10T06:30:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Seven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Seven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seven)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2005, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-got-my-first-proper-mailed-chain-letter-today/307706/1 "2005-06-10T06:30:21Z")
WOW! This isn’t the “mail 20 of these off or your fall in a hole” type letters - this is the “mail a buck to six people, copy this letter and mail it to 200 people and next thing you know you’ll have $80k”. I don’t know the person who mailed it to me. Of course I have no plans to play this game and the letter is in the bin. Do people really mail out 6 bucks or do they just copy letters and mail them out? ---
**Author:** ![Seven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Seven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seven)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2005, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-got-my-first-proper-mailed-chain-letter-today/307706/2 "2005-06-10T06:31:29Z")
That should say “mail 20 of these off or **you’ll** fall in a hole” ---
**Author:** ![AngelicGemma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/439d5e/32.png) [@AngelicGemma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AngelicGemma)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2005, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-got-my-first-proper-mailed-chain-letter-today/307706/3 "2005-06-10T12:27:19Z")
> [@Seven](#): > > Do people really mail out 6 bucks or do they just copy letters and mail them out? I’m guessing people just sent the letter without sending money. I got a similar one as a kid but it asked me to mail chocolate bars. ---
**Author:** ![Seven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Seven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seven)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2005, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-got-my-first-proper-mailed-chain-letter-today/307706/4 "2005-06-11T01:35:25Z")
> [@AngelicGemma](#): > > I’m guessing people just sent the letter without sending money. I got a similar one as a kid but it asked me to mail chocolate bars. HA! I should mail out a handful of these but change the wording to a food item. "I was naturally sceptical but tried it anyway. I mailed out 200 letters and over the next 4 weeks I received 796,445 cans of Potted Meat Food Product in the mail. I’m going to do this with 1000 letters next time." ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2005, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-got-my-first-proper-mailed-chain-letter-today/307706/5 "2005-06-11T01:46:46Z")
Just don’t ask for ice cream. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Unkempt\_One](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b782af/32.png) [@The\_Unkempt\_One](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Unkempt_One)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2005, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-got-my-first-proper-mailed-chain-letter-today/307706/6 "2005-06-11T15:56:42Z")
Chocolate bars would be cool. Also, steamed fish. ---
**Author:** ![mischievous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@mischievous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mischievous)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2005, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-got-my-first-proper-mailed-chain-letter-today/307706/7 "2005-06-11T18:55:24Z")
I may have mentioned this before, but I had the dubious honor of receiving a chain fungus (twice). Someone left a cutting on my apartment door with instructions on how to care for it, along with standard “pass this on to 10 of your closest friends and you will receive good luck, care for it always and only give it to people you trust” missive. The fungus was a creepy, pinkish, foul-smelling slab that resembled nothing more than a slice of rotting chicken, and the instructions were in Spanish, so I didn’t realize what the hell it was suppossed to be - I thought I had gotten some kind of threat or something. The second time I got it (after I had a friend translate the letter), I just shook my head and laughed. mischievous ---
**Author:** ![mischievous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@mischievous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mischievous)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2005, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-got-my-first-proper-mailed-chain-letter-today/307706/8 "2005-06-11T19:56:54Z")
> [@Seven](#): > > That should say “mail 20 of these off or **you’ll** fall in a hole” Just pass it off as a faithful rendition of the poor spelling of the original. 😉 mischievous ---
**Author:** ![pinkfreud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pinkfreud/32/17603_2.png) [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2005, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-got-my-first-proper-mailed-chain-letter-today/307706/9 "2005-06-11T20:41:51Z")
There was a funny chain letter going around in the 1960s that asked you to mail an ounce of weed to the people on the list (this was back in the days when an ounce of decently smokable dope could be obtained for about ten bucks).