Scam Email

A while ago I received a forwarded email from a friend about a crisis that is happening in South Africa. The email claims that there is a myth in South Africa that states if a grown Man had sexual intercourse with a virgin child then they will be cured of HIV/AIDS. The email also gives a detailed story about three years old that was beaten and raped and her abuser is walking free. So, the email continues, sign a petition asking the Government not to close the child protection unit.
It is very devastating reading about such incident and very hard to believe that this kind of ignorance still exists. The fact of the matter is, the email the whole email is a hoax. They ask you to sign a petition (your name & email) and forward it to your friends/family. The last person (#500) should forward the names and emails of all 499 people to a certain email address they provide. The way the story is written is to make the person reading it feel guilty if they don’t forward it, it makes you feel like you have participated in that atrocious crime.
So I goggled the story and sure enough there is a statement from S. African police denouncing the email. They say “The myth that sex with a virgin will cure AIDS really does exist in Africa. This sickening and vile myth may be at least partially to blame for South Africa's extremely high incidence of child rape. Such myths are not new nor are they confined to the African continent. The myth is also common in other developing nations with high rates of HIV infection. In 19th century England, many men believed that having sex with a virgin could cure venereal diseases such as syphilis.”
What upsets me more than the story itself is that these things do exist and by this people using it to scam people makes it hard for real organizations to advocate for the victim. Next time people won’t even give this kind of claim a second look or even take it seriously and work with people to make a difference. I think it’s our responsibility to educate ourselves before forwarding them to anybody. The police say signing this misguided email petition is pointless and will do nothing to help South African children. In fact forwarding the message may even add to the problem by wasting the time of police staff obligated to answer questions about the supposed closure of the unit.
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