If you're like me, you have friends and relatives who send you, and everyone else on their list, emails about cancer-afflicted children who have written poems that they want forwarded to everyone you know (I received this one yesterday) or warnings that your cellphone number is about to be sold to a gazillion advertisers and there's nothing you can do about it. (Received this one about three weeks ago.)
And of course, they are all frauds.
When you receive an email like this, the thing to do is go to your favorite search engine - I use www.google.com, and type the topic in and do a search on it. Usually Snopes.com debunks the warning emails - most of those have been floating around for years, and you'll also find these charity requests debunked on a variety of sites.
It's a pity, really, that there are people out there with so much time on their hands that they try to think up these things and then see how long they have an internet shelf life...all too long, apparently.
So just a tip, if you ever receive a request - especially for a charitable donation - do your research on it first - in particular if it comes from Nigeria! They are all frauds.
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