When Bad Chain Letters Happen to Good People

David "Darren" Bucklew is no urban legend, though many people think he is. He is also not dying of a rare disease called "ostriopliosis of the liver," though many people believe that, too. Darren Bucklew is a normal, healthy teenager living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. So why do people believe these strange things about him? Blame it on the Internet, and on the vagaries of love.

Our saga begins in January 1998, when an email began circulating in the name of Timothy Flyte, allegedly a very sick child. The message said: "I have severe ostriopliosis of the liver. (My liver is extremely inflamed). Modern Science has yet to find a cure. Valley Childrens hospital has agreed to donate 7 cents to the National Diesese [sic] Society for every name on this letter. Please send it around as much as you can."

It proved to be an egregious hoax. There is no such disease as "ostriopliosis." There is no such organization as "the National Diesese [sic] Society." Timothy Flyte was not a real person, but a fictional character in the creepy Dean Koontz novel, Phantoms. In spite of all that, the chain letter was eagerly forwarded by people evidently too pressed for time to reflect upon the absurdities contained therein.

Just a few months later, the same letter popped up again, this time bearing the name of a different beneficiary. It was now David "Darren" Bucklew, a student at Bethel Park High School in Pittsburgh, who desperately needed our help. The message looked like this:

The Bucklew variant proved every bit as popular as the Flyte letter and in fact has remained in circulation for more than a year. Like the Flyte letter, it has also proven to be a major Internet nuisance, only worse. David "Darren" Bucklew really exists. He is not a victim of "ostriopliosis," but he and his family are most definitely victims of a malicious Internet prank.

Danielle Bucklew, Darren's mother, has spent the past year combating lies about her son. She is fairly sure the hoax was launched by another high school student known to Darren. The motive: rivalry over the affections of a teenage girl. Darren first realized his name was infamous on the Net when fellow students began asking him last spring if he was dying of liver disease.

"I didn't think it was that big a deal," he told the Pittsburgh Weekly this May. "But then it got around everywhere."

More than a year later, says Danielle, the family still receives as many as 10 phone calls weekly from people all over the world inquiring about Darren's health... or saying he ought to be ashamed of himself. All of her efforts to correct the misinformation have proven futile. "It's like throwing spit on a forest fire," she says.

The hoax has affected others, as well. Both the Bethel Park School District and Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh had to post notices on their Websites in hopes of stemming the tide of inquiries. Given the longevity of a typical Internet chain letter, those notices will probably remain in place for some time to come.

In a May 3 news story on the Bucklew saga, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review quoted an attorney specializing in Internet law to the effect that Darren and his family have no legal recourse against the perpetrator of the hoax. Such pranksterism "falls between the cracks of current law," Jason Haislmaier said. When the Bucklews tried to get confirmation of the hoaxer's identity from America Online, where they believe the message originated, they were told that the account in question no longer exists. AOL says it has no records on its former owner.

"I'm ready to call on Oprah is what I'm ready to do," jokes Danielle.

If nothing else, the Bucklews' tribulations ought to make a large number of people – namely, habitual forwarders of junk email – sit up and take notice. More to the point, these people need to take responsibility for the information (or misinformation) they pass along to others. Spreading falsehoods, intentionally or not, can affect real people's lives. It can also damage your own credibility, not to mention clogging up the Internet with useless kilobytes.

My advice: don't pass along forwarded messages if you can't personally vouch for the "facts" contained therein.

Better yet, don't pass along forwarded messages at all. What goes around comes around.

Sources:

Houser, Mark. "E-mail hoax a big headache for otherwise healthy teen-ager." Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. 3 May 1999.

Levine, Marty. "There's a sucker forwarding every minute." Pittsburgh Weekly. 22 Sep. 1999.

Relevant Links:

The Timothy Flyte Chain Letter
The "template" for the Bucklew letter, itself a pastiche of previous "dying child" hoaxes

Internet Chain Letters
An overview of the phenomenon with many examples

Hoax Busting Resources
Fight back against Net misinformation

Current Net Hoaxes
Recent Features

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