Chain Letter Curses
(added 1/2/2006)
Description:
A chain letter is a message that attempts to convince the recipient to make a number of copies and pass them on to a certain number of recipients. The "chain" is an exponentially growing pyramid (a tree graph) that cannot be sustained. Common methods used in chain letters include emotionally manipulative stories, get-rich-quick pyramid schemes, and the exploitation of superstition to threaten the recipient with misfortune or promise good luck.
Source: joejoe123 (YouTube)
Earliest Encounter:
An early example of a supernatural chain letter was in March 1997 in Japan. Software developer Hina Nakashima began receiving multiple spam emails from an anonymous user containing a strange and undecipherable message. According to Nakashima, the message appeared to be a mix of random letters and numbers, quotes and broken hyperlinks leading to random websites.
A week after seeing these emails, Nakashima began experiencing unusual events, one event being her ceiling fan falling and injuring her shoulder badly and getting into a non-fatal car accident. The email wasn’t shared publicly, but Nakashima mentioned in the original story that she had archived a screenshot copy of the email.
When questioned about the archived email being released, Nakashima said the following:
Interview (source: LifeLine, 2001)
While this specific story never gained much traction outside of Japan, another story went viral within days of being unveiled.
Other Encounters:
On April 9th, 2001, a woman named Linda Collins was found dead in her bedroom from a fatal overdose. Further investigations found high amounts of Temazepam and alcohol in her system. Near her bed was a diary that described an unnerving spiral into insanity.
Click here to read the diary.This was one of many reported suicides in the area as the rates began to rise following Linda’s case. One major detail linking the cases together is what was found on the computers of the victims, which is a chain letter telling the victim to smile. The email is accompanied by a low quality image of a grinning dog in a dark room.
The image exhibited strange and anomalous properties, such as missing EXIF data, abnormally large file size, sudden crashes when opening the image, etc.
