You ever get those e-mails?  You know, the typical ones people get and forward on to all their friends.  They are usually reminding you to tell your friends how much you care (no doubt by forwarding that e-mail to them) or reminding you to stop and smell the roses, etc., etc.  Some even call for some kind of action on your part, which may seem harmless.  But they always end with an appeal to forward it to all your friends.  I've seen my share of superstitious ones, like "if you don't send this to X number of people, something bad will happen to you."  But today I saw an interesting one:

"FORWARDED E-MAILS ARE TRACKED TO OBTAIN THE TOTAL COUNT."

Tracked???  Hahaha, let me tell you as a software developer--one who is familiar with the protocols, etc. used for e-mail and how it is transmitted:  The former superstitious claim is actually more likely of being true! Lol!  E-mail technology does not permit a person to track if a sent message is forwarded.  Transmission is handled by the e-mail server responsible for the domain of the sending e-mail account, which would be different for each person forwarding the e-mail.  I hate to burst your bubble, but the only feasible way a person could do such tracking is to include a virus in the e-mail.  I checked, and there was no virus in the aforementioned e-mail, but wouldn't that be an effective means to distribute a virus?  Imagine that!  Hundreds of unsuspecting (not to mention gullible) people unknowingly e-mailing viruses to their friends!  All under the guise of showing them how much they care...  How ironic.

Besides, isn't the whole concept silly, really?  "Oh! You received a forwarded e-mail explaining someone else's feelings and took a few seconds of your time to pick my name out of a list in order to forward me this message that you didn't even write and thus add it to my junk mail.  I'm so touched."  It's one thing if it's something amusing that you decided out of your own want to forward to me because you thought I would personally appreciate it.  But here's a clue: If you want to show me how much you care, open up a new e-mail addressed to me and tell me!  Lol.  That's right, a spontaneous personal e-mail in your own words from you to me.  Now that's something I can appreciate, and I may even find it touching.

But what about the ones that guilt you into forwarding?  "Don't you care enough to forward this e-mail??"  For all you know, it could be a virus; don't you care enough not to?  Besides, is your friend really going to be upset that you didn't forward him an e-mail he never even knew about?  And is the original sender going to be upset that you didn't forward the e-mail when they don't even know you received the e-mail in the first place?  Much less whether or not you forwarded it?  I say take the hint and tell your friend how you feel, but in your own words and in your own way.

So in conclusion:  Forwarded chain e-mails cannot be tracked.  No one will ever know the extent of how widely it was distributed.  Furthermore, there is no chain-mail deity that rewards people for forwarding chain e-mails and punishes them for not doing so.  In fact, if you don't forward a chain e-mail, no one will ever know and nothing bad will happen.  It's all a ruse to get people to forward the e-mail.  The fact is, there's no way to verify the original source of the message; therefore, there's no reason to trust it.  In fact, if they're willing to lie to you to get you to forward the e-mail, how can you trust the rest of the e-mail?  For all you know, it could contain a virus.  Something to think about...