Hoaxes and Urban Legends: AOL will donate five cents for baby's brain cancer operation

There are many hoaxes that encourage you to forward emails because some well-known corporate will donate money to some worthy cause for every email forwarded. Every such email is a hoax, because there is no way for such corporates to know when an email has been forwarded.

This particular hoax claims that 14-month old baby Natalie has brain cancer and her mother Krista Marie is appealing to people to forward this email, because AOL will somehow donate five cents or centavos for every forwarded email. This claim is completely fake. The Baby shown is neither called Natalie, nor did she have brain cancer. She's actually 10 years old by now.

Please review:

Natalie (snopes.com)
Krista Marie Brain Cancer Hoax (hoax-slayer.com)

Known email hoaxes:
The AOL/Microsoft money giveaway hoax
The "809" area code hoax
The burned baby hoax
Amy Bruce / Make A Wish hoax
The "Invitation" virus hoax
The "Life is beautiful" virus hoax
The Oliver North / Osama bin Ladin / Al Gore hoax
Send spam to the South African police to save children
Exxon/Mobile gas boycott
Bush IQ report / Lovenstein Institute hoax
Monkeyman935 warning hoax
Kidney Theft urban legend
Ashley Flores, 13 (missing child hoax)
How to detect a two-way mirror
$50 call-back spam
Cooking an egg with cell phones
"Osama captured" / "Osama hanged" virus
A tale of Japanese Lizards and Love
The $5 killer
Audi A8 made out of silver
ATM PIN code entered in reverse will call the police
Mars spectacularly close to Earth on August 27
"An old lady walked into a Grocery Store..."
"Allah or the Lord Jesus Christ?"
"PDA+GSM Palm Treo 650 dan Treo 680 dan Treo 750"
Bayer drug contains HIV
Forward or lose your Hotmail account
Chinese "fix" jet engine with seatbelts
AOL will donate five cents for baby's brain cancer operation
Ericsson distributing free laptops
Art Bell Filipino hate letter
Hypodermic needles on gas pump handles
"Through a rapist's eyes" / Crying Baby theory
Sheryl Crow / John Hopkins Cancer update about plastic bottles
Children buried alive in Egypt, saved by Jesus
Missing child - Regina George Muñoz
Papaya Juice - (NOT!) A Cure for Dengue
Hiroshima 64 years later (is actually Yokohama)
Lou Dobbs video on Immigration/Amnesty bill (dead since 2007)

Example chain letter (received in April 2008):

Has Una Obra de Amor con solo mover tus dedos

Hola Mi nombre es Krista Marie y acabo de tener una Bebita, que se llama Natalie. La Traje al Mundo, y recientemente los doctores descubrieron que mi pequeña Natalie tiene un Cáncer en el Cerebro.

Desafortunadamente mi marido y yo no tenemos el Dinero para pagar la Operación, pero mi esposo y yo conseguimos una ayuda con AOL, y ellos nos ayudaran con 5 centavos por cada persona que reciba este Correo. Por Favor, Reenvía este correo a cada contacto que tengas, y ayúdenme a darle vida a mi pequeña NATALIE.




 Se que le ayudaras!! Solo reenvía este a Tus AMIGOS!!. Dios te guarde!! Y te retribuya todas tus buenas obras
Mil bendiciones
 

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