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By BURKE DAVIS III
Anindel Newspapers Staff Writer
WARRENTON — Remember the chain letters that aimed to pick your pocket? There’s a new scheme now: letters that try to steal your heart with a tale of a poor child dying in a hospital.
No money is sought. It’s not a scam. It’s simply an untrue but widespread piece of modem urban folklore.
Names and details vary. The basic tale runs thus: a young child is hospitalized with a dread disease (usually cancer), has a short time to live, and wants to set a world record on the number of get well cards he’s received.
But there’s a new technological wrinkle since the days when chain letters promised mounds of cash: now they are whiz across the wires, from fax machine to fax machine.
Last week, The Fauquier Times-Democrat received a fax transmission about “Craig ... a seven-year-old boy who is in the Royal Mardco Hospital in London, England. Craig has a tumor in his brain and one on his spine and, unfortunately, may have very little time to live.
“It is Craig’s ambition to have an entry in the Guiness Book of World Records for the largest number of get well cards. Please send a card today. ...”
An address for a residence in Carehalton, Surrey, England, is given. The letter then adds, “please THINK POSITIVELY about Craig’s recovery.”
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