Wake up, my friend.

Just turned on my computer and wanted to post something about my orientation day in Apiit, but then something in my inbox aroused my curiosity, that was "FW: Fw： Pls respond ASAP‏"



As you can see, I still have 2211 unread mail in my inbox, but this doesn't mean I seldom check my inbox. (In fact, I check my inbox everytime when I sign in to my Windows Live Messenger, using Windows Life Today :P) It's just because I always choose e-mail to read, and to be frank, I usually don't read forwarding e-mails (especially those starting with "FW" or "FWD"), unless the topic catches my attention, and unless the content is meaningful, or else I usually won't continue reading the whole thing. And then until one day when I think they're a bit too many, I will start deleting them page by page.

Oops, I think I went a bit too far... back to the topic,
Yea... and so I clicked on the "FW: Fw： Pls respond ASAP‏", and scrolled a long way down to read the content, okay, I'll show you the content,

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Hi my name is Amirtha

I am 7 years old, and I have severe lung cancer ... I also have a large tumor in my brain, from repeated beatings.. Doctors say I will die soon if! this isn't fixed, and my family can't pay the bills.

The Make A Wish Foundation, has agreed to donate 7 cents for every time this message is sent on.

For those of you who send this along, I thank you so much, but for those who don't send it, what goes around comes around.Have a Heart, please send this.

Please, if you are a kind person, send this on. PLEASE HIT FORWARD BUTTON NOT REPLY BUTTON.

YOUR'S FAITHFULLY,



DEAR FRIEND,

PLEASE SEND THIS MESSAGE AS MANY TIMES AS YOU CAN. WE CAN SAVE A LITTLE ANGEL GIRL LIFE.

THANK U

GOD BLESS

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and the moment I saw this I was like "uhhh.... not this again...", I've been receiving this type of e-mail for quite a few years and the only thing changed was just their names, before this were something like Jessie Anderson, Amy Bruce, Bryan Warner etc, and now came a new name, Amirtha.

This e-mail is definitely a hoax.

Why?

1. The Make A Wish Foundation would never lend its support in such a ridiculous e-mail-based charity campaign. In fact, the organization had clarified that they do not participate in such thing and even had long-listed out some other similar hoaxes in the official website. Refer http://www.wish.org/about/chain_letters

2. If you bother to use a few minutes to check, here're some websites:
- http://www.hoax-slayer.com/amy-bruce-charity-hoax.html <- This is very well written
- http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/medical/mydek.asp
- http://chainletters.net/chainletters/amy-bruce-cancer-hoax/ <- This website is rather cute, it's the final resting place for over a thousand e-mail forwards, funnies, hoxes, jokes, surveys, and every other form of forwarded e-mail junk imaginable on the Internet. X)

and then you'll realise that often times, our compassion for the needy is ill-used, how cruel we humans are.

I know most of you might think that it's okay to simply forward these e-mails regardless if it's true or not, because if it's true, then wow, you are doing a painless great deed, pat on your back and praise yourself, well done! ; but if it's not, then it's okay also, since it's just a forwarding e-mail, and you might be thinking again, "Hello, what's wrong to forward it though I didn't know it's fake!? I could've saved a child's life by doing so you know?"

Well, I cannot say you're wrong, but I think you are wrong.
1. You didn't know you are actually generating multiplicating so called rubbish in the internet.
2. You didn't know you are actually spreading helping to spread rumours everywhere.
3. You didn't know you actually causing trouble for our charitable organizations, such as American Cancer Society and Make A Wish Foundation, for that they have to devote valuable resources to answering queries about their supposed involvement.
4. You didn't know the real identity of the child in the photograph and that her image may have been added to the hoax without the permission or knowledge of her parents.
(There's actually a photograph of a cute little indian girl attached with the e-mail above but I did not include it, and that's why I did not include it, she's innocent.)
etc.

This e-mail above was just a small case. I believe you have received quite a lot of forwarding e-mails saying something like if you don't forward this e-mail to other people, bad fortune or whatsoever will fall on you, but if you do forward, good luck will always follow you, depends on how many people you forward to. This is worse, it not only deceives, but also threatens.

So...
Please think twice before you do or trust anything, or better yet, do some research. It doesn't cost you much time to check, just simply google a few keywords and you will know if it's true or not. Why spend so much time selecting you friends' e-mail addresses to forward while you can actually do something that is much better and smarter?

p.s. Please don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that you should not forward e-mails. I mean, if it really can save or help somebody by doing so, I definitely will do whatever I can. And you should, too.

p.p.s. If an organization is willing and able to offer financial help, they will do so directly and the amount donated will not depend on the random forwarding of an email. Any message that claims an email is being tracked and that money will be donated for every forward is virtually certain to be a hoax.

Verdict:
Check if it's true before you forward any e-mail.
If you found that it's a hoax, please delete it without forwarding and ensure that you let the sender know its true status.

p.p.p.s. If you really want to help a sick child, make a donation to the Make-A-Wish foundation @ http://www.wish.org/ or alternatively, you can also always help the poor creatures who can't even voice out their rights to anyone when they are suffering @ http://spca.org.my/ (and visit also http://patapet.zeneng.net/ ! haha.. ^^)