The Bottom Line: Are money-making chain letters illegal?

Chain letters are still out there. Whether mailed or e-mailed the scheme is the same: Mail a check to the people listing in the letter, add your name to the bottom of the list, then mail the letter to other people asking them to do the same. My house received one in the mail a few weeks ago, and many people here on Gather have said they've been hit over the years.

While doing research for a recent series of magazine articles on credit card fraud, I ended up chatting with the U.S. Postal Service investigators. During our interview I uncovered a few things related to chain letters that I'll pass along here:

* Chain letters are indeed illegal. Here's the U.S. Postal Inspection Service's verbatim take on the matter: usps.com/postalinspectors/fraud/chainlet.htm.

* Chain letters are investigated and prosecuted by request of the U.S. Postal Service's law enforcement arm, which has 1,700 postal inspectors spread across the U.S.

* Anyone who receives a chain letter in the mail, or an e-mail chain letter that requires mailing of checks, are requested by the U.S. government to turn the letter over to the closest regional postal inspection office or report it to the U.S. Postal Inspector's online complaint center, at postalinspectors.uspis.gov/forms/MailFraudComplaint.aspx.

I hope this helps clarify a murky area of law. Please note that I am not an attorney. I am simply a journalist, reporting what I found. Your thoughts?