How do people believe this?

[InnerRebellion]

No offense, but if the people you know believe this... they're fuckin' idiots.

Just sayin'.

This is the most obvious chain letter I've ever seen. It's just so... awful.

They're Freshmen, so I'm not too surprised.

 

[onewheeled]

Reminds me of this rumor that went around on Facebook when everybody had cartoon characters as their profile pictures a couple of months ago.

It said that the fad, which had you posting characters from a cartoon you enjoyed as a child, was created by pedophiles so that it would be easier to find young kids to stalk online.

Unfortunately, this chain letter was posted about a zillion times by all the gullible idiots at my school. Seriously, how does this even make any sense?

 

[PROcrastinator]

Yeah. This has happened to me in another form. Its crap. FaceBook would find a better way of saying they are shutting down. not that

 

[Worgen]

Do what you must to ensure the safety of yourself and others from the dangers of stupidity.
Win against cheaters.
Do it right like Uncle Mike.

aww, I want someone to try and do that to me on steam, I would have so much fun

 

[ZacktheWolf]

With as many social-game-whoring people as I have added on FB, I have yet to see this message.
And quite honestly...
I wouldn't care. Maybe if it shut down at 11, people would be forced to do things like ACTUALLY go out with people they know IN REAL LIFE. =O

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

Rule 1 of the universe: People are stupid.

Move along everyone.

 

[Cain_Zeros]

No, I haven't seen it. As for why people believe it, the same reason people believe the world's gonna end next year. Wizard's First Rule. "People are stupid; given proper motivation, almost anyone will believe almost anything. Because people are stupid, they will believe a lie because they want to believe it's true, or because they are afraid it might be true."

 

[Sovvolf]

Spoiler: Just for the sake of the page size

Do what you must to ensure the safety of yourself and others from the dangers of stupidity.
Win against cheaters.
Do it right like Uncle Mike.

Love it how the fellow just breaks down in the end. Doesn't even try for an excuse, just a Shut yo arse up. I hope he got reported, dumbass.

 

[SkyeNeko]

I'd send it after I edit it so that it at least looks legit. Then I'd forward it to everyone and enjoy the chaos that ensues.

 

[Nouw]

When I was a newbie on Steam, on chat this guy said "is trying to hack your account" and I believed it! We had a laugh and moved on.

From then on, I was much more 'free' with fake mails and etc. Any chain-mails given to me or crap like that, delete or ignore.

Answering your question OP, it's just stupidity.

 

[badgersprite]

You mean I'm not the long lost granddaughter of the King of Nigeria? The finance minister in the email seemed so determined to make sure I earned my inheritance, once I forwarded him that fee...

 

[JunebugJuJuBee]

These are the same people that immediately believed their astrological sings changed after one interview with an anstronomer. People alone are smart. People in groups are dumb. It's sad.

 

[Marik2]

Do what you must to ensure the safety of yourself and others from the dangers of stupidity.
Win against cheaters.
Do it right like Uncle Mike.

PFTHAHAHAHA

THAT WAS HILARIOUS XD

 

[Kurokami]

Now, it may just be the people on my friends list, but everyone on Facebook seem to think Facebook is shutting down at 11pm because of the following chain message, which I have not altered.

"This coming 11pm,all facebook account will be CUT. This is according from the creator of facebook. All the activities that was being done this time will be delay SORRY FOR THE INCONVENIE NCE. To save you're facebook accounts, please forward this message to 25 FB users for us to make sure that you are active user of FB. If can't pass t...his to 25 users you're account wil be cut without any hesitanc"

Now, I noticed the following problems with this message. First of all, that breaks so many rules of grammar. Second there are random spacings. Third, wrong form of your. Fourth, it would be sent to our inboxes from Mark himself. Fifth, they wouldn't abbreviate it. Sixth, random elipses shows it's a chain letter. Seventh, no creator of a site that makes billions every year would shut it down, and if he would, he wouldn't have his members send a "prevention" message to each other. Eighth, hesitance is spelled wrong. Ninth, Facebook should be capitalized. Tenth, wrong form of your again. Eleventh, "Sorry for the inconvience" would be in italics, underlined and in bold, not in capitals.

Has anyone else seen this? Also, how do people so willingly believe things with no basis in truth?

People don't read them, they just pass them on because it makes them feel relevant.

That being said, I've excommunicated people before for sending me those messages.

 

[Scarecrow]

Do what you must to ensure the safety of yourself and others from the dangers of stupidity.
Win against cheaters.
Do it right like Uncle Mike.

Is that real? Because if it is, it's very funny

 

[Anarchemitis]

Is that real? Because if it is, it's very funny

It's real but it's not me.

 

[superline51]

People are stupid. That's it, really.

What he said. I've found the general population to be, well, somewhat retarded.

 

[superline51]

By this point, it should be common sense that anything that tells you to forward to X number of people to prevent/cause Y action to happen is all a load of BS. Key word SHOULD

 

[Bobbity]

Do what you must to ensure the safety of yourself and others from the dangers of stupidity.
Win against cheaters.
Do it right like Uncle Mike.

I can see how people might be fooled by this sort of thing; because you immediately react without thought for anything other than following the instructions. On the other hand, A lot of people just love screwing with them There are whole sites devoted to screwing with these people: http://www.419eater.com/index.php !
Anyway. Back on topic. While I can potentially see people being caught out by that sort of thing, the people who react to chain-mail are trolls or idiots, and that's pretty much it.

 

[Sinclair Solutions]

I think this image satisfies the topic question to a splendid degree: