Editor Comment:
I am so sick of people posting this and other stupid hoaxs and spam!!!!
Every time you blindly respond to these, you make yourself look as stupid as the original sender, who is usually laughing at you and the others who answer back, and you piss off the people to whom you pass these things.
Claim The Make-a-Wish Foundation will donate 7 cents per e-mail forward towards the care of 23-year-old Matt Dawson, who is dying of lung cancer and a brain tumor
EXAMPLE
Please help Matt!!
Everyone needs to take the time and read this. Just take a break from all your other stupid bulletins about who is gonna die or if your love life will suck for 7 years and be serious and do the right thing. Repost this or you have no soul seriously. A kid needs our help so do the right thing.
Hi my name is Matt Dawson. I am 23 years old, and I have a large tumor on my brain and severe lung cancer. The 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 reposted. For those of you who repost, I thank you so much. But for those who don't repost it, I will still pray for you. Please, if you are a kind person, have a heart. Please, please, PLEASE REPOST THIS MESSAGE AS "READ PLEASE!"
Matt Dawson
702-355-6198 Home
Please feel free to call me for anything.
*hey it wont cost you but 10 seconds of your life
Sounds very touching
Did you reply, or pass it on as you were requested to do?
Well, guess what: It's a hoax - you got scammed!
This first appeared in th Snopes Urban Legend inbox in July 2006 and is smiply a reworking of the long-running "Amy Bruce" e-mail hoax with a different name slapped into the text.
Understand this: the Make-A-Wish Foundation� does not participate in chain letters or other direct solicitation wishes, as they state here on their site.
The underlying falsity remains the same: The Make-A-Wish Foundation will not donate money to anyone based upon the number of times an online appeal is forwarded via e-mail or posted to message boads.
The "Matt Dawson" message is one of many variants of the same basic hoax, one which falsely claims that the American Cancer Society, the Make-A-Wish Foundation, or some other charitable or medical organization will donate a set amount of money every time a particular appeal is reposted. (Indeed, a quick look at the 2006 dying child e-mail hoaxes in the names of Chad Briody and Brian Warner shows the Matt Dawson e-mail is but a reworking of them.)
The Make-A-Wish Foundation does not in any way assist in procuring medical treatment for sick children. They do work to grant the wishes of youngsters with life-threatening medical conditions, but the Make-A-Wish Foundation is about "enriching the human experience with hope, strength, and joy" by helping to create special days for desperately ill children, not about collecting donations to pay for medical care.
Con artists are clever and cunning, constantly hatching new variations on age-old scams. Still, skeptical consumers can spot questionable or unsavory promotions in email offers. Should you receive an email that you think may be fraudulent, forward it to the FTC at [email protected], hit delete, and smile. You'll be doing your part to help put a scam artist out of work.
If you really want to help, please just stop causing the Make-A-Wish Foundation to look like a scam outfit. And stop pissing people off by forwarding crap like the Matt Dawson e-mail hoax!
