The original pre-Internet chain letters were even better. Some promised good fortune of you continued the chain, and horrible consequences if you didn't, but often they were money making schemes. You would receive a list of names, and you would send a dime, or a dollar, to the name at the top of the list, remove that name, and put your own at the bottom. If everyone stuck with the chain, and sent the money, then eventually your name would rise to the top of the list, and money would start pouring into your mailbox. Theoretically.

Most states made them illegal.