Auckland's Starship Hospital is distancing itself from a hoax email appealing for support for a dying child.
The fraudulent message uses the name of a senior female staff
member who has been forced to go on stress leave.
The hospital fears its own fund-raising efforts may be tarnished by
the hoax.
Hundreds of people have been duped and the woman staff member
has been verbally abused over the fraudulent email.
The email reads, "Hi my name is Amy Bruce. I am seven years old and
have severe lung cancer... I also have a large tumour in my brain
from repeated beatings."
The email, a story of a little girl who is gravely ill, takes a
blatant tug at the heart.
"Doctors say I will die soon if this isn't fixed and my family
can't pay the bills," the email continues.
Andrew Young, from Starship Hospital, is now warning people to
delete the email if they receive it. "Do not sent it on. It's a
complete hoax," he says.
The email doesn't ask for money but says the Make a Wish
Foundation, linked to Starship Hospital, will donate seven cents
every time the message is sent on.
"The email's got so many disturbing components to it. It is
emotive, it draws on the heart strings. People have been
questioning whether it's genuine or not and we've had very angry
callers who have rung in and attacked us," says Young.
More disturbingly the email actually claims to be from a senior
staff member at Starship Hospital and unlike the email, she is
real. But the response has not been good and she is now on stress
leave.
"She's getting a lot of phone calls from people attacking her,"
says Young.
"She puts her heart and soul into her job and it's very devastating
for her to have her identity plonked into this email," he
adds.
IT specialists have examined the email but there seems no way of
tracing its origins.
"There's no way that they could gain financially from this so I
don't know. Maybe there's some glory in duping thousands and
thousands of New Zealanders," says Young.
It is believed the email has been circulating globally for around
10 years using the names of various charities from around the
world. But Starship and Make a Wish now fear any genuine
fundraising they do has been tarnished by the hoax.
