urban legends

Chuck Biehl (bieh9435@dpnet.net)
Thu, 03 Jul 1997 07:03:39 -0400


Just recently, I received a copy of one of these "cancer victim" letter,
so I post this excerpt from "The Tourbus", an emag I get once a week.
Please forward it to anyone whom you suspect of spreading urban legends,
but then again, by spreading this around, you're doing the same thing,
aren't you? ;)

THE FATHER OF ALL INTERNET URBAN LEGENDS
----------------------------------------

If you have been a TOURBUS rider for any amount of time, you'll know
that
one of the worst urban legends floating around the Net is the story
about
Craig Shergold:

Craig Shergold is seven years old and suffering from terminal
cancer. It is his ambition to be included in the Guinness Book of
Records for the largest number of business cards ever collected
by one person. Craig would be grateful if you could send one of
your business cards to the address below and also send the
enclosed pages, including one of your own, to another ten
companies.

[Quoted from http://www.legends.org.za/arthur/craig01b.htm]

What the "Craig letter" does not tell you is that Craig is alive and
well,
he's cured, he's now well into his teens, he made it into the Guinness
Book
of Records years ago, Guinness has retired the "most cards" category,
and
HE DOESN'T WANT ANY MORE BLOODY CARDS! You don't believe me? Go to
*ANY*
search engine -- Yahoo, Lycos, Alta Vista, etc. -- and type in the words
"Craig Shergold."

A few years ago, someone thought it would be funny to change the Craig
letter a little so that the letter now requests that you send your cards
to
the Make-A-Wish foundation (instead of to Craig's home in England).
Here
is what the Make-A-Wish foundation has to say about that:

"The chain letter claims that Make-A-Wish is involved," stated
James E. Gordon, Chairman of the Board of the Make-A-Wish
Foundation of America. "That is not true. Our organization is
not, and has never been associated with the letter. Yet our
office continues to receive numerous phone calls each month about
the letter, diverting our staff time and resources from our
mission. The Make-A-Wish Foundation requests that people please
stop sending business cards or greeting cards to Craig Shergold."

[Quoted from http://www.wish.org/wish/craig.html]

If that isn't bad enough, someone else thought it would be funny to
completely rewrite the Craig letter and change the name "Craig Shergold"
to
"Jessica Mydek":

LITTLE JESSICA MYDEK IS SEVEN YEARS OLD AND IS SUFFERING FROM AN
ACUTE AND VERY RARE CASE OF CEREBRAL CARCINOMA. THIS CONDITION
CAUSES SEVERE MALIGNANT BRAIN TUMORS AND IS A TERMINAL ILLNESS.
THE DOCTORS HAVE GIVEN HER SIX MONTHS TO LIVE.

AS PART OF HER DYING WISH, SHE WANTED TO START A CHAIN LETTER TO
INFORM PEOPLE OF THIS CONDITION AND TO SEND PEOPLE THE MESSAGE TO
LIVE LIFE TO THE FULLEST AND ENJOY EVERY MOMENT, A CHANCE THAT
SHE WILL NEVER HAVE. FURTHERMORE, THE AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY AND
SEVERAL CORPORATE SPONSORS HAVE AGREED TO DONATE THREE CENTS
TOWARD CONTINUING CANCER RESEARCH FOR EVERY NEW PERSON THAT GETS
FORWARDED THIS MESSAGE. PLEASE GIVE JESSICA AND ALL CANCER
VICTIMS A CHANCE.

IF THERE ARE ANY QUESTIONS, SEND THEM TO THE AMERICAN CANCER
SOCIETY AT ACS@AOL.COM

[Quoted from http://www.cancer.org/chain.html]

Here is the American Cancer Society's response:

As far as the American Cancer Society can determine, the story of
Jessica Mydek is completely unsubstantiated. No fundraising
efforts are being made by the American Cancer Society in her name
or by the use of chain letters. Furthermore, the email address
ACS@AOL.COM is inactive. Any messages to the American Cancer
Society should be instead sent through the American Cancer
Society website at http://www.cancer.org.

[Quoted from http://www.cancer.org/chain.html]

One of the things that tipped me off that the "Jessica" story was a hoax
was the line in the letter that said "THE AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY ...
[HAS]
AGREED TO DONATE THREE CENTS TOWARD CONTINUING CANCER RESEARCH." Ask
yourself one question: why would a not-for-profit organization like the
American Cancer Society, an organization whose goal is the promotion and
continuation of cancer research, *MAKE* a donation to continue cancer
research? Who, exactly, would they send this money to? THEMSELVES?!
Isn't that a tad bit redundant? :)

Our next urban legend of the day is this little letter, which has been
clogging up the Net recently:

From: Anthony Parkin<Parkin@MayoHospital.health.com>
Date: Wed, 17 Apr 1996 12:46:46 +0800
To:
Subject: My dying wish

My name is Anthony Parkin, and you don't know me. I'm 7 years
old, and I have leukemia. I found your name using gopher, and I
would like for you to carry out my dying wish of starting a chain
letter. Please send this letter to five people you know so I can
live forever.

Unfortunately, neither the "Mayo Hospital" nor the domain
"MayoHospital.health.com" exist. There is a Mayo Clinic, however, and
here
is what they have to say about the Anthony Parkin chain letter:

[P]lease be advised that the letter did not originate from a
valid source. The address "Parkin@MayoHospital.Health.Com" is
fictitious, as are the particular details of that letter.

The plight of children or adults suffering from leukemia,
however, certainly is not fictitious. It is understandable that
such a letter can generate a great deal of sympathy, but
forwarding chain letters is not an appropriate response to the
situation. If you would like further information about how you
can help the real victims of this terrible disease, please take a
look at the Leukemia Society of America world-wide-web server [at
http://www.lukemia.org/].

[quoted from http://www.mayo.edu/about/parkin.html]

One of the things that tipped me off that the Anthony Parkin letter was
a
hoax was that he used a .COM address. Most teaching hospitals -- like
Mayo, Hopkins, etc. -- are in the .EDU domain.

Folks, if you receive a letter telling you that Craig Shergold, Jessica
Mydek, Anthony Parkin, or ANY other sick/dying kid wants you to send
them
business cards, get well cards, e-mail letters, or anything else, DON'T
BELIEVE IT! These stories not only betray the public's confidence, they
cause damage to legitimate organizations like the American Cancer
Society
and the Mayo Clinic.

POLAR EXPRESS
-------------

Stay on the Net long enough, and you will be able to actually *predict*
urban legends. Back on December 19, 1996, I told you about a letter
floating around the Internet stating that Houghton Mifflin Publishing
Corporation will donate one book to a children's hospital for every 25
e-mails they receive. The story *was* true, but Houghton Mifflin
reached
its goal of 50,000 e-mail letters and their "Polar Express" campaign has
been over for about 7 months. As far as I can tell, the campaign will
not
be revived.

You can find more information about the Polar Express campaign on
Houghton
Mifflin's Web page at:

http://www.hmco.com/hmco/trade/hmi/polar/

My prediction: expect to see this urban legend flood the Net again in
November and December. :(

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
L. Charles (Chuck) Biehl
The Charter School of Wilmington
(v)302-651-2727  (f)302-652-1246
http://dimacs.rutgers.edu/~biehl