This week I received for the hundredth time a chain email that's appallingly stupid. This one announces the closing of Hotmail.com, the popular free email service. As it explains, the user must send the chain email to all of his/her friends in order to avoid the cancellation of the service. It goes like this: since hotmail.com administrators don't know who is really using the service nor the real popularity of it, they are sending this email to contact all their users and find out if the service is being used and then decide if they keep the service active or close it, because of the economic problems they were having. This is just one of the versions I've received.

Obviously, this is not going to happen. Hotmail is the most popular free web mail service and they don't have any plans to cancel their services. Sadly, this is just one of the many chain emails I've received. Issues range from free gifts from notorious companies to good luck promises, help for sick kids, free money, free software, etc.

What fundamentally bothers me about these chain emails are two things: first, the time and resources that are wasted sending these pointless emails; second, the nonsense people swallow.

E-mail is one of the most used Internet tools, and it's a real shame to fill it with trash that only wastes people's time. This is one of the main reasons why some companies limit internet access to employees, because instead of raising productivity, web hosting servers get loaded with trash.

But of all the chain emails I've received, the ones that annoy me the most are those that say things like 'If you send this to 10 friends, you will receive a surprise, if you send it to 20 friends'' People that send me these emails not only make me waste my time filling my inbox with useless stuff, but they go and promise me happiness and good luck (some even threaten me!) for continuing the chain.

For all of those that follow these chains, let me tell you, you are just wasting your time and that of others: hotmail is not going to stop service, you are not going to help any kid with cancer, you are not going to receive any money nor (please!!) are you going to have any luck as you send your stupid chain email to more accounts.

If you too are annoyed by this trash, you can use the following answer, and probably some of these guys will get the idea:

'I just received your chain email. About 1,000 people have sent me chain emails and every one of them has died in the following 6 months, probably caused by the 'Chain email curse'. You will probably die soon if you experience any of the following symptoms: 1) tiredness at night, 2) Hunger just before eating, 3) Inability to remember your license plate number, 4) stupidity'.