Chain emails from our childhood
Chain emails and messages were practically a rite of passage into tweenhood, right up there with signing up for your personal Yahoo! or Hotmail account. Remember MSN Messenger? Those were the days. Nothing quite matched the thrill of sending your friend a 2-line email consisting solely of emoticons like 
and xD.
Back then, copypasta chain emails were all the rage. These guilt-trippy messages practically begged to be forwarded to your entire contact list. You might be familiar with some of these chain emails from our childhood, often with an ominous “FW: FW: FW:” in the subject line. If you’ve even sent some yourself to avoid the bad juju – hey, we get it and we don’t judge.
1. The friendship chain email
Sparkly GIFs were the hot thing back then
Image credit: Glitter-Graphics
Graphic design was clearly the passion of our generation because the way these glittery masterpieces flooded almost every chain email was truly a moment in time. The friendship chain email was one of the tamer ones – no creepy threats, just spreading love, joy, and positivity around.
Image credit: ZingerBug
Topped with sparkly graphics, these emails were generally harmless and actually rather wholesome. There was no catch and they often had some feel-good messages about the importance of treasuring life and acknowledging how precious love is. They might have been corny and unoriginal but it felt good to receive one from a friend nonetheless.
2. The crush chain email
Something amazing will happen to you…
Image credit: @careless-painter-912 via Reddit
Ah, the good ol’ days when young love could be secured through a forwarded crush chain email. As one of the things we did for love as teens, the crush chain promised varying degrees of success in love if you forwarded this email. An important detail was that this efficacy often depended on how compliant you were and how many times you forwarded it.
If love didn’t apply to you, these emails often had contingency outcomes, promising “something amazing” in your future. Some versions even threw in a plot twist, swapping out a love confession for someone apologising to you instead. Did these ever work for anyone, btw?
3. The creepy story chain email
Clown statues, Mickey Mouse & little dead girls
Image credit: Courseofhorror
Creepy story chain emails always kicked off with a dramatic disclaimer – “This is not a joke!! This is 100% real!!” And while they were definitely not real, they were 100% effective in instilling true fear and panic in me as a child.
Involving everything from the supernatural like ghosts and demons to serial killers, these emails would declare “Don’t stop reading! It’s already too late!” before recounting some gruesome tale of murder. The real kicker is if you didn’t pass it on, you’d supposedly meet the same horrific end.
I once received an email telling me that Mickey Mouse would kill me in my sleep and hang me in my closet for my parents to discover my body if I didn’t forward it. Ngl, that experience scarred me and I had to sleep in my parents’ bed that night.
Other nightmare fuel classics included a not-so-fake clown statue under a bed murdering a babysitter and the “dog licking its owner’s hand” that was actually… not a dog. If those ring a bell, my condolences…
4. The thoughts & prayers chain email
Good things come to those who forward chain emails
Image credit: @Lovette Woytovicz via Google
In the same wholesome vein as the friendship chain, the thoughts and prayers chain email was all about spreading good vibes. Albeit slightly less juvenile, chances are it came from your overly enthusiastic aunt or grandparent who loved spreading inspiration and motivational quotes to everyone on their contact list.
These emails haven’t exactly disappeared either – they’ve just evolved in the form of WhatsApp group chat messages and videos. It doesn’t look like much has changed since then – these mindsets of gratitude and living life to the fullest have withstood the test of time.
5. The wealth & fortune chain email
Buying lottery tickets right after this
Image credit: Courseofhorror
Managing finances as an adult is hard and sometimes it’s easier to hope for Cai Shen Ye to smile upon you. The wealth and fortune chain email was often related to good and bad luck, and was tailored for the superstitious, promising riches in abundance and a sudden windfall. However, it also threatened the same consequence of misfortune and ill effects if left unforwarded.
Image credit: Google Groups
This chain email type would also sometimes create specific scenarios of how you would receive money to add credibility. Now, if only they actually worked…
6. The sympathy scam chain email
Chain emails to help a person allegedly in need
Image credit: @Arkmi via Reddit
Likely one of the first iterations of various scam messages, the sympathy scam chain email was focused on guilt-tripping recipients, playing on your feelings of pity to share a sad story. The premise was every time you forward the email, some mysterious organisation would supposedly donate money to help the “victim.” Sometimes, they even went a step further to solicit money and donations directly for the “victim” and their unfortunate situation.
Looking back, it’s wild how many of us actually believed these, but they really knew how to tug at our heartstrings.
7. The curse chain email
These chain emails had no qualms about “playing mother”
Image credit: @eightezzz via Reddit
The curse chain email shared many commonalities with the horror chain email but did not require a graphic tale to spook you beforehand. Instead, they were straightforward and would simply instruct you to forward the email or something bad would happen.
There were no limits – the mildest ones would curse you with ugliness or bad luck in love and the harshest curses would involve the death of mothers, loved ones, and other grisly consequences.
Image credit: @TheFlashFrame via Reddit
These curses were so feared that they later also came with spin-off memes that protected you like lucky charms. More chain posts were created as a way to combat the original curse chains and it was a never-ending cycle. Personally, I never forwarded these myself so maybe those immunity doggos did work after all.
The chain email rollercoaster we survived
At the end of the day, looking back at these chain emails is all in good fun. Suffice to say, some were more traumatic than others but it does make me miss the ridiculous fun I had reading them.
These days, chain messages and posts still exist online but internet safety has gotten a bit more tricky. Remember not to get phished and scammed into clicking on random links. Those curses may have been fake but you never know which email could actually be harmful.
For more blast-from-the-past nostalgia:
Cover image adapted from: The Smart Local, @careless-painter-912 via Reddit