Forward emails for the medical costs of a girl named Fatima-Fiction!

Forward Emails for Fatima's Medical Costs-Fiction!

Summary of eRumor:
The email says it's from Fatima's mother. The little girl was hit by a car and has internal bleeding. Her family does not have health insurance, so the mother has "made a deal" with a company that will pay three cents for every email that is forwarded about Fatima.

The Truth:
We have not been able to find anyone named Fatima who fits the description in this story. It's a hoax, however, because there is no special "encoding" of emails that tracks where they've been forwarded. This is one of numerous "emails for money" eRumors on the Internet right now.

A real example of the story as it has been circulated:

Subject: Fwd: YOU BETTER FORWARD THIS
Date: Sat, 10 Jun 2000 11:30:39 -0700

Hello, my name is Tariq Hafeez, and I live in
Chicago.

Well, this is an important for you to read, because I really need your cooperation. It is so imporant for you to know about what I want to tell you.

Ok, let me start.

Ok, a couple of days ago, my daughter, she's 6 years old, her name is Fatima. Well, she was playing on the street, in front of our house, and then from out of no where, this car came out and crashed into her! I was sooo frightened and angered at the driver, but it ended out to be, that the drivers brakes had been
shot, and he wasn't able to stop. Luckily, my daughter, was able to avoid
death, but she is in very serious condition. Right now, as I speak, she's in
the hospital, but the thing is, she has a serious injury. It's internal bleeding, and it's bad to say, but we don't have any health insurance, and we don't have
enough money to pay for the operation. So I made a deal with a
company, BCC inc. And they told me, for every person that will forward this
email, they will donate 3 cents To the operation. THIS IS NO JOKE. We
attached encoding, that tracks how many times this message is forwarded.

SO PLEASE, FORWARD THIS LETTER TO EVERY PERSON ON YOUR LIST. IT WILL BE VERY MUCH APPRECIATED!!!

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!