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This version of the help a family in need by forwarding an e-mail plea began its Internet life in early September 2003. Once again, kind-hearted netizens were being told that by spamming their friends they could help relieve the plight of a financially-stricken family at a loss for any other method of affording vital medical care for a dangerously ill or injured child: Example: [Collected via e-mail, 2003] Yet once again it's a hoax. There is no comatose five-year-old victim of a hit-and-run accident, and no premature baby born with Down syndrome and chronic colitis as a result of the emotional stress her mother endured. It's just another leg-pull, another chapter in the Let's see how many fools we can get to spam each other game. Although AOL is often named in these sorts of hoaxes as the benefactor standing by ready to ship monies to the desperate family on the basis of how many forwards are generated AOL does not help ill children in this fashion. At least up until 2001 (we're not sure if this program is still in operation), the internet provider did have a program wherein it recognized through its Child of Resolution Awards in the United Kingdom the achievements of children who had demonstrated tremendous resolve in continuing their education, in spite of chronic or recurring illness, disability, or injury, but said award amounted to an AOL Child of Resolution 2001 certificate, a £100 cheque, a year's sponsored membership of the AOL service in the UK, and an AOL rucksack containing a watch, t-shirt and stationery. Although these gifts would certainly delight and motivate a child, they hardly amount to underwriting medical bills that run into tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars for individual youngsters. AOL is invoked in these hoaxes simply because it's big and it's online. Hoaxes such as these rely upon the recipient's believing in bits of shopworn Internet fiction, such as the myth of a program for tracking e-mail through a cascade of forwards and the widespread gag involving rewards of free merchandise from any number of household-name companies. Therefore, bleed not your heart for this fictitious single mother of four and her ill-advantaged brood, nor forward her plea to others. Spare your friends.
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