This is a hoax, and a particularly stupid and cruel one at that. It clots
the Internet with innumerable useless copies of itself by preying on the
laudable human instinct to Do Good.
The American Cancer Society has vehemently disavowed this "campaign" --
see
http://www.cancer.org/chain.html. More information on this and other
chain-mail frauds and hoaxes is available at
http://kumite.com/myths.
Give this two seconds' thought and ask yourself two questions.
"How on earth would the American Cancer Society have any way of knowing
how many people this had been forwarded to?"
"Even if it could, would anyone seriously make a little girl's treatment
program contingent on the success of a chain-letter campaign?"
If you've fallen for this and mindlessly forwarded it to everyone you
know, please do the net a favor and write them all back to tell them it was
a thoughtless mistake.
At 04:10 PM 11/25/97 +0000, Ron Ekins wrote:
>This comes from Michael Wentzel up in Delaware, Ohio. He passes along this
>message he received..... Now I know that you probably all rolled your eyes
when
>you saw this was a forward, but this is important. I hope you guys all
pass this
>on. Thanx
>
>O.k. you guys..... this isn't a chain letter, but a choice for all of us
to save
>a little girl that's dying of a serious and fatal form of cancer. Please
send
>this to everyone you know...or don't know. This little girl has 6 months
left to
>live, and as her dying wish, she wanted to send a letter telling everyone to
>live their life to fullest, since she never will. She'll never make it to
prom,
>graduate from high school, or get married and have a family of her own. By
you
>sending this to as many people as possible, you can give her and her
family a
>little hope, because with every name that this is sent to, The American
Cancer
>Society will donate 3 cents per name to her treatment and recovery plan.
One guy
>sent this to 500 people !!! So, I know that we can send it to at least 5
or 6.
>Come on you guys... and if you're too selfish to take 10-15 minutes
scrolling
>this and forwarding it to EVERYONE, then you are one sick person. Just
think it
>could be you one day.It's not even your $money$, just your time!!!
==========================================================================
Gordon T. Thompson gordy_at_nytimes.com
Manager, Internet Services 212 556 1386
The New York Times fax: 212 556 1636
Received on Tue Nov 25 1997 - 20:52:48 NZDT