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Internet hoaxes hurt real efforts

By Mark Harrison
The Times-Journal

Published September 13, 2005

The story of 7-year-old Amy Bruce is truly heartbreaking.

Amy has cancer from breathing second-hand smoke and a large tumor on her brain caused by repeated beatings.

Consider the heart-wrenching transcript of a mass e-mailing, sent out by none other than Amy herself. “The doctors say I will dies soon and my family can’t pay the bills.”

But there IS hope, Amy says. “The Make-A-Wish Foundation has agreed to donate 7 cents for every forwarded e-mail. For those of you who send this along, I thank you so much, but for those who don’t sent it, what goes around comes around.”

There’s only one problem – it’s an elaborate hoax. Little Amy Bruce doesn’t even exist.

There are similar hoaxes along this theme. Each claims to be from a dying child; each claims a similar type of organization will donate a sum of money for each e-mail forwarded. Such claims have been circulating for years.

The Make-A-Wish Foundation website reveals none of the claims are true. In fact, Make-A-Wish has been forced to donate an entire page of its site to debunking Internet chain letters.

Make-A-Wish says, “Each day, the Make-A-Wish Foundation of America receives hundreds of inquiries regarding chain letters claiming to be associated with the Make-A-Wish Foundation. As a matter of policy, the Make-A-Wish Foundation does not conduct these types of wishes – including Internet and e-mail requests.”

Make-A-Wish specifically requests such e-mails NOT be forwarded, and goes on to specifically addresses the Amy Bruce hoax. Apparently, the Foundation’s legal department was not amused. “This request is false, and the Foundation has contacted the originator’s Internet service provider to pursue the matter.”

What makes the Amy Bruce hoax and others like it so reprehensible is that it detracts from legitimate efforts to help dying children. And there are other, arguably even more insidious, e-mail scams circulating, many soliciting monetary donations or promising great riches in exchange for fees.

Sadly, similar Internet scams revolving around Hurricane Katrina are inevitable.

It’s easy enough to check out an e-mail forward containing suspect information through a variety of web sites.

Check out http://urbanlegends.about.com and http://www.truthorfiction.com.

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