https://www.billkochman.com/Blog/stop-sending-those-silly-chain-messages/
For those of you who may not yet be aware of it, for the record, I do NOT engage in chain letter or chain message activity on Facebook, or anywhere else on the Internet for that matter. I assume that most of you already know what chain messages are. However, for those of you who may not know, they are basically a private message which claims that something good will happen to you — you will receive money, or you will be blessed in some way, etc. — if you pass along — or forward — the same message to a certain number of your other online friends. My friends, let’s be clear about this. Such bogus claims are both superstition and nonsense.
Other chain messages are political messages in support of some candidate or some political cause, which you are likewise asked to pass along to your online friends. And still other chain messages are invitations to sign online petitions regarding one cause or another. In short, chain messages come in many different forms.
My personal position regarding chain messages can be summed up like this: I do not care what the nature, content, cause or intent of the message is. Regardless of whether or not I deem it a worthy cause, I will NOT forward said message to anyone I know. Even if the message originates with one of my known online friends, I will still not forward the message to anyone.
Are you aware of the fact that some scammers and mischief makers are so talented at what they do that they can send you a chain message which seemingly comes from one of your friends, even if it really doesn’t? It is no different from email scammers who do the very same thing. And that is precisely why email scams proliferate so much. People are fooled into believing that the message is from their friend, when in fact, their friend’s address book may have been hacked. So again, passing along chain messages in any form is just too risky and too dangerous.
Do some of you folks even realize what kinds of nasty things can be embedded in videos and photos, which you cannot physically see with your eyes? They act as hitchhikers when you start forwarding said messages to all of your Facebook friends and other online friends. It goes viral. Personally, I refuse to be responsible for such things happening, so I simply do NOT forward any chain messages. Period.
Now, I realize that you may think that you are doing a good thing by supporting such causes — whatever they are — and by forwarding such chain messages, as the message originator prompts and demands that you do. However, you could also be doing a lot of harm and damage without even realizing it. Not just to other people, but to yourself as well.
Equally important, please be very careful regarding what kinds of links you click or tap on — anywhere, not just on Facebook — what web pages you open and visit, what emails you open and read, etc. Trust me; there are trolls and hackers lurking everywhere on the web, just waiting to take advantage of your naivety.
As I have mentioned so many times before, if you click on the wrong link, or open the wrong email, or go to the wrong web page, or tap on the wrong image in a chain message, it may begin a series of events behind your back, which you may not even be aware of, and which may leave you seriously embarrassed in the end.
I can’t count how many times I have seen this happen on Facebook. Some naive person clicks or taps on a particular link or image, and the next thing you know, dozens of their friends have received either a private text message from them, or a new comment posted on their timeline — supposedly from that friend — in which they are invited to visit some porn site. Ouch! I know that some of you who are reading this know exactly what I am talking about, don’t you?
So the people who have been targeted contact the originator of the message and say “Hey! How come you sent me that message? How come you posted that on my timeline?” The surprised victim says “I did no such thing!”. You see; they weren’t even aware of what happened when they clicked or tapped on that link or image, because it is all done surreptitiously without them being made aware of it. It can be rather embarrassing recovering from such a situation, as some of you have found out.
One chain message in particular which irked me some time ago was the “Corpus Christi” chain message, which I received a number of times from different Facebook friends. Yes, I can agree that the play — and now the movie — are disgusting and wrong. No true Bible-believing Christian can disagree with that point. However, what particularly irked me about the “Corpus Christi” chain message, is the fact that in their endeavors to pressure people into forwarding their message, the author of the message relied upon making the receiver feel guilt, and basically condemnation, if the receiver of the message did not forward the message. In fact, the author of the message implied that God would not bless the receiver of the message if they did not forward the “Corpus Christi” chain message. I am referring to this section of the message:
—– Begin Quote —–
“It will take you less than 2 minutes! If you are not interested and do not have the 2 minutes it will take to do this, please don’t complain if God does not seem to have time for you.”
—– End Quote —–
Folks, that is totally uncalled for. That is how Satan operates. That is outright condemnation. He tries to pressure you into doing what he wants, by making you feel guilty if you don’t do it.
As I said earlier, all of this talk about how God will bless you in some way if you forward a particular chain message to five or ten or more of your friends is absolute nonsense. It is superstitious. It is silly. It is not true. So please don’t believe it for a minute. I don’t think God has anything to do with online chain messages.
In conclusion, some of you people need to wake up, stop being so gullible regarding these chain messages, and ask God for some Wisdom and Spiritual Discernment, because obviously, some of you are still lacking in that area. I don’t mean to offend you, but that is simply the truth. Protect yourself, and protect your online friends, by not engaging in chain messages in any way.
And that is my word with a bark on it! 🙂
