# Don't join the chain gang

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/1997/10/19/don039t-join-chain-gang/
- Published: 1997-10-19T23:00:00+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

UK Fundraising has learned that two chain letter appeals are circulating in the 
UK.

One asks you to send a compliment slip to “a young boy, Craig John, who is, sadly,
terminally ill with cancer.” He wants to get into the Guinness Book of Records for
holding the largest collection of compliment slips. You are then asked to pass on
this request to “ten other places” or organisations.

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The other appeal is on behalf of “Gary Richards” who is “just seven years old and
has terminal cancer.” He also wants to be entered into the Guinness Book of Records
for the largest collection of business cards.

Guess what? These children do not exist. So all the universities, unions, magazines,
advertising agencies, department stores, travel agencies etc who have passed on 
these letters to 10 other organisations are wasting their time and everyone else’s.

Fortunately, these chain letters don’t ask for the compliment slips or business 
cards to be sent to a charity. Such scams have happened in the US, though, to the
American Cancer Society and the Make A Wish Foundation. But it is probably only 
a matter of time before someone does link such a chain letter to a UK charity.

It’s interesting to note that “Craig” and “Gary” both live in the same town in Surrey.
In fact, they live just six houses apart. Now, isn’t that just too much of a coincidence?