I received an email on a baby called “Natalie”, who supposedly has brain cancer and would urgently be needing financial help.

The email has a picture of her and a text in Portuguese that would translate like that in English:

Please do not delete it, you don’t need to read this, just forward it

Warm-hearted people wouldn’t delete it.
Hello, my name is Krista Marie and I have a daughter, who is called Natalie. In the eyes of the world, recently, doctors found that my little Natalie has brain cancer. Unfortunately my husband and I do not have the money to pay the operation, surgery, but my husband and I got a help from AOL, they will help with 5 cents for every person who receives this email. Please forward this email to everyone you know, and help my little Natalie…

Please do not delete it, forward it.

This is another false “news”, a hoax, a virtual urban legend. All these messages stating that so-and-so is sick and will receive some cents from AOL, Microsoft, IBM, etc.., all of them are simply lies. Those companies do not promote that kind of action, and they can’t even control how many emails are sent by each person.

This false story about “Natalie” began in United States and is in the Internet since 2002. In fact, the baby on that picture is called Megan Olivia Cronce and was born in 1996, by the way, very healthy. Her picture was placed on a website about babies and someone used it to create this story, like so many others hoaxes that are out there. Those hoaxes come and go and always return in different versions.

You can read more details about this hoax here.

When we receive such emails, it’s worth to google them to see whether they are really true or not. Or, better yet, to search directly in one of the many sites specialized in unmask such hoaxes, like the Hoax Slayers.

Posted in Hoax
Tags: Hoax, Krista Marie, Natalie, spam
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