MONEY CHAIN LETTERS!

Money chain letters urge the recipient to send money to one or more prior senders, claiming that one can likewise benefit in the future. A managed list of names and addresses is provided. Money chain letters originated in the United States in the spring of 1935 with the "Send-a-Dime" letter, also called "Prosperity Club" [Denver]. We show how a prior luck chain letter [1933] was used as a model for Send-a-Dime (> Origin $). Money chain letters have influenced the content and distribution of luck chain letters up into the 1950's and possibly beyond (sections 4.2 and 4.3). They continue as an omnipresent nuisance to this day, both in paper [2002] and as E-mail [2001]. Money chains and pyramid schemes violate Federal {USPS} and State (West's CA) laws. If filenames in the Paper Chain Letter Archive are ordered by name, money chain letter filenames will appear in a block, all beginning with an "m."