Good intentions - Bad use of time

From time to time we receive some emails as these. About some child suffering from terminal illness. The mails come from trusty, responsible friends. Action requested being merely to forward the mail. For every mail forwarded, some kind-hearted organisation offers 5 cents. This way, the cost of the operation or medical treatment is proposed to be covered. Basically, some organisation is so full of love that without knowing the money it will be committed to pay, it agrees to pay something for every mail - Similar to signing away a blank cheque.

Usually I delete these mails (albeit with a slight trace of guilt). Last time I decided to get more pro-active. I Googled with some key words of one such mail. It showed the organisation mentioned as the first result. The website of the organisation had a different story to tell. It cautioned against such mails and said that they waste a lot of time responding to queries generated by these kind of mails. They also stated that if one wished to help the children (not the ones metioned in the mails - for they were all false names in hoax mails) they could do so by donating directly.

Another such mail that has been doing the rounds for the last few years has been one regarding Microsoft and AOL merger and that Bill Gates has so much of greenback in his wallet that he has pledged so share a few thousands of dollars with spammers for merely forwarding emails.

So people, if you simple delete these mails, it could save a few thousands of people-hours spent in reading and forwarding the stuff.