BreakTheChain.org
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Penny for Your ThoughtsDate Added: Oct. 9, 2001
Missing/Sick Child Chains are definitely among the worst types of chain letters. In the few cases where they are real, they contain too little information or circulate long after the real need for them has passed. But in most cases, they are total hoaxes created to play on human emotion. Subject: FW: PLEASE LOOK AT PICTURE THEN FORWARD ** High Priority ** PLEASE LOOK AT PICTURE THEN FORWARD I am asking you all, begging you to please, forward this email on to anyone and everyone you know, PLEASE. My 9 year old girl, Penny Brown, is missing. She has been missing for now two weeks. It is still not too late. Please help us. If anyone anywhere knows anything, sees anything, please contact me at zicozicozico@hotmail.com I am including a picture of her. All prayers are appreciated!! It only takes 2 seconds to forward this on, if it was your child, you would want all the help you could get. Please. Thank you for your kindness, hopefully you can help us. (See attached file: Penny.jpg)
Some versions include an addition of seemingly related text, further attempting to personalize the plea for help: Please pass this to everyone in your address book. To All: We have a store manager from Longs, S C who has a 9 year old daughter that has been missing for 2 weeks. Keep the picture moving on. With luck on her side she will be found. - Peggy There are many reasons to dismiss the above as a hoax. First, parts of the message are identical to earlier hoaxes about Kelsey Brooke Jones and C.J. Mineo. Second, messages to zicozicozico@hotmail.com bounce (not surprising, since Hotmail's Terms of Service specifically prohibit this type of chain letter). Its utter lack of facts (dates, last known location, description of clothing and identifiable marks, etc.) makes it nearly impossible to validate and renders it virtually useless even it it were valid. We have a picture, but no idea how old it is. Aside from the useless reference to "for now two weeks," we have no idea when Penny went missing. We also have no idea where she was last seen, where she's from or her parents' names. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the U.S. authority on missing child cases, has never had a listing for a child resembling that in this not. Some versions of this letter have illustrated beautifully the primary hazard of forwarding these chains: False Attribution Syndrome. Subject: FW: PLEASE LOOK AT PICTURE THEN FORWARD ** High Priority ** PLEASE LOOK AT PICTURE THEN FORWARD I am asking you all, begging you to please, forward this email on to anyone and everyone you know, PLEASE. My 9 year old girl, Penny Brown, is missing. She has been missing for now two weeks. It is still not too late. Please help us. If anyone anywhere knows anything, sees anything, please contact me at zicozicozico@hotmail.com I am including a picture of her. All prayers are appreciated!! It only takes 2 seconds to forward this on, if it was your child, you would want all the help you could get. Please. Thank you for your kindness, hopefully you can help us. Monzine Jang
(See attached file: Penny.jpg) Ms. Jang received this e-mail and, like many, was moved to pass it on. Unfortunately, her "signature" with contact information was automatically appended to the message, leading many subsequent recipients to mistakenly believe she was the author and, thus, Penny Brown's mother. The flood of calls of support and supposed leads drove the University of Calgary to set and auto-reply on her voicemail and e-mail. Ms. Jang also issued the following statement to her colleagues at the University: "Penny Brown, is not my child. I received the chain e-mail as a forward and forwarded it myself (unfortunately, my business card was attached to it with my number and everyone thinks she is my daughter missing in Calgary). I cannot validate if this is true, but a missing children organization group called me to say there is no one missing in Canada or the U.S. by this name. Therefore, I do believe this is a HOAX. I have been inundated with calls about this little girl (100 per day), please send this back to all those you sent to and to those who sent it to you and ask them to do the same, to not circulate this hoax anymore. I appreciate your help." Proof positive of the old adage that "no good deed goes unpunished." Break this chain. References: None
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