tchaulk | 
03 2nd, 2009| 
You know it’s Monday and all that email at work has piled up over the weekend. Lots of spam and a few messages with a dozen fwds in the text as they’ve been passed on from person to person. But should you be the one to pass this one on? Chances are the answer is no because most of these emails that ask you to forward them so that someone can get money or so that some wish can come true are actually not true. Sometimes it is simply an annoyance that you keep the message going and going and going. But sometimes it can be dangerous and sometimes it can be damaging to a company, a person, or an organization.
One such email I received recently is about a dying child who wants to receive money from the Make-A-Wish Foundation. The names change. I’ve received them about children with different names but mostly Amy Bruce. They vary a little from message to message but one such email is:
Hi, my name is Amy Bruce.
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,
AMY BRUCE
amy.bruce@[removed]
Nice people receive this email and immediately forward it, thinking they are doing something good. But the truth is that these emails have caused a lot of hardship on the Make-a-Wish Foundation. As the organization says on its website referring to this matter and the many inquiries they receive about these emails, “the time and expense required to respond to these inquiries distracts the Foundation from its efforts on behalf of children with life-threatening medical conditions…”
So next time you receive an email like this, just delete it and refer the sender and all the others who were sent the email, to the Make-A-Wish Chain Letter page (Canadian version here). If you want to help, there are ways to do so. Find out more at the Make-A-Wish Foundation or the Make-A-Wish Foundation Canada.
