A notorious low in Internet history

The Internet (web, mail, etc.) is a fabulous great thing. Without it I wouldn't be able to find such cool things as the beginning of a wooden marble powered computer, find solutions to problems, connect with old friends, connect with distant friends, communicate with my girlfriend, etc.

But there are these other things on the Internet, such as spam, spyware, virusses, hoaxes and chain letters. Well, today I just received a chain letter which is the ultimate low of how ignorant some people are and how devious others must be, and to what cause?

A chain letter typically attempts to have people send the letter to a number of other people, with the sole purpose of just sending it along to yet more other people. In some cases these sort of chain letters have been the carrier for all sorts of malware. Obviously the goal there is to distribute the malware. There are soo many of them already: http://www.hoax-slayer.com/.

Now the one I got today is just sick. It contains a word document. The word document contains an image of a baby, obviously heaviliy scarred from an accident with fire. Underneath it the text states that this baby is in the renowned hospital in Pellenberg, with the message that for each e-mail the parents will receive 0,03 euro to pay for the numerous operations the baby will need.

A quick search on the internet reveals that this hoax already exists from before 25/11/2007: http://www.nieuwsblad.be/Article/Detail.aspx?articleID=g0p150esc (dutch).

Why people send these things is beyond my comprehension!