Chain letters, which are now illegal, used to be sent with warnings that you wou

Question

Chain letters, which are now illegal, used to be sent with warnings that you would have bad luck if you broke the chain. If you received a letter with 10 names on it, you were supposed to send $1.00 to the name at the top, reprint the letter, omitting the first name on the list, but printing the other 9 names followed by your own name as number 10. This letter was then to be sent to 3 trusted friends. Each of them was to send $1.00 to the name that was now on top (originally number 2 on the list) and then copy the letter, omitting that first name (originally number 2 on the list) at the top and putting their own name at the bottom. They then sent the letter to 3 of their friends, and so on. The letter promised everyone who received it and did not break the chain would get a large amount of money. How much money would you get if no one broke the chain? Think about how many people should be sending $1.00 by the time your name is at the top of the list? Parts a, b, and c and the table in part d will help you answer the question

a. How many people received the list with your name in the 10th place? (Hint: Your three trusted friends.)

b. How many people received the list with your name in the 9th place? That's when each of your three friends sent the new list to three others.

c. How many people received the list with your name in the 8th place?

d. Make a table starting with your answers to parts a, b, c:

Chain Letter Recipients

e. If everyone who received the list where your name was at the top (or in the first place) sent you $1, how much money would you get?

f. Why do you think chain letters were made illegal?

Explanation / Answer

A) 3 people

B) Number of people who received the letter with my name at the 9th place = 3x3 = 9

C) Number of people who received the letter with my name at 8th place = 9x3 = 27

D)

E) Amount of money I would get = $59049

F) This is a kind of scam which is not sustainable on a long run and many people will end up losing money as the levels of this increase. By the time it reaches 15 levels or so, the number of people in the chain will be huge and amount collected also wil be huge. This doesnot guarantee any return to the person who is investing into it. This is to take advantage of the people who are illiterate or the ones who cannot understand the consequence behind this. It is right for the state to identify this as fraud and to make it illegal.

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