Guinness book of records - childs chainletter

Anyone with kids received a chain letter recently? It sounded very dodgy to me but need to find out more. Letter goes like this: the chain started in 1996, be in Book of Records Spring 2005 along with all the names of those who do it, Send letter on to 7 other kids, by post cos the post office is monitoring the chain,in a week you get a thank you letter - (thats a summary of the contents). Thing worries me - surely Spring book of records for 2005 is already ready? An Post monitoring this? Who sends the thank you letter and how? Needless to say my 8 year old will not be allowed to partake much to her upset? Tomorrow I will contact An Post to see if they know anything. Anyone come across this ?

I recall seeing a 'cancellation' of such a chain letter sent out by a seriously ill child in the early 90's, who ended up breaking the record but was still flooded with letters long after he had lost interest in his record attempt. Dunno if this is the same one.

Check snopes.com for information about such chain letter scams among other hoaxes/urban legends.

guinnes book

Ah brilliant - that site clearly refers to this exact thing, either by email or post. I also visited the Guinness book of records site and they clearly discount this as sad hoaxes aimed at kids. "Guinness World Records does not accept any records relating to chain letters, sent by post or e-mail. If you receive a letter or an e-mail, which may promise to publish the names of all those who send it on, please destroy it, it is a hoax. No matter if it says that Guinness World Records and the postal service are involved, they are not.
We are sorry if you have been taken in by a chain letter claiming to be legitimate and are now disappointed to learn that it is not."
Just let my kid read it for herself and now she understands what it was really about. Thanks for your help people!

Re: guinnes book

We got this too (got several of them in the one week). We spoke to the kids about chain letter in general, and they happily threw them in the bin.

Re: guinnes book

Why are an post delivering these chain letters without stamps
attached if they are a hoax?

chain letters

Yep I was amazed at that because ours definitely came with the morning post. Maybe some letters do slip through without the stamp or correct postage?

i just got 1 today but it says 2006 not 2005