ONLINE CHAIN LETTERS

One of the most obnoxious things you can do with e-mail is to pass around chain letters.Because all mail programs have forwarding commands,with only a few keystrokes,you can send a chain letter along to  hundreds of other people.Do not do it.Chain letters are cute for about two seconds,and then they are just annoying.In late 1994 a chain letter appeared on America Online disguised as a warning that a horrible computer virus capable of erasing your hard disk was being  spread by e-mail. The virus allegedly arrived in e-mail messages bearing the words Good Times.Well-intentioned individuals quickly sent it to everyone they knew.The chain letter,not the nonexistent virus,spread rapidly throughout the Internet. Computer viruses are spread through programs that ,after they are run can have malicious effects.E-mail is stored as text -not as a program- that cannot cause damage to your disk unless you give specific commands  to run a program.This chain letter shows up under various names,regardless of the title, how-ever,virues do not spread by e-mail.Despite our best efforts  to stamp out these few chain letters some just keep comming around  and around. Find out how to  recognize them both on books on the subject or through  your internet provider.