Outline
Circulating message claims that people can send Christmas cards to recovering soldiers in the UK via the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham.
Brief Analysis
The information in the message is incorrect and counterproductive. The Queen Elizabeth Hospital does not have such a program operating and has asked that people show their support in alternative ways. In fact, the message is a UK version of another incorrect “Cards for Recovering Soldiers” message that has circulated in the United States for several years. Please review the Detailed Analysis below for more information.
Example
When filling out your Christmas cards this year, take one card and send it to this address:
A Recovering Soldier,
c/o Queen Elizabeth Hospital,
[Address removed]
Detailed Analysis
This message, which is circulating via social media websites and email, claims that people can show their support for recovering soldiers in the UK by sending them Christmas cards via the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham.
The message claims that the cards should be sent to “A Recovering Soldier” and includes a mailing address for the hospital. New versions of the message begin circulating anew every year as Christmas approaches.
The person who originally created the message was probably well-intentioned. However, the message contains incorrect information and is counterproductive. The Queen Elizabeth Hospital is not operating such a program and has asked that people do not send cards to the specified address. The hospital has issued the following statement about the message on its website
Please don’t send cards and gifts to anonymous military patients at QEHB this Christmas.
Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham (QEHB) and the Ministry of Defence (MoD) are encouraging those wishing to send gifts and cards to injured soldiers to visit the official hospital charity website for alternative ways of showing support this Christmas.
The sheer volume of Christmas cards which the hospital receives shows just how much goodwill exists for our injured troops, but the mountain of cards we receive also overwhelms our facilities team and can cause backlogs in processing mail from GPs and patients.
The hospital’s statement includes current links to the relevant charity websites.
This message is apparently a UK based version of a long-running US Recovering Soldier email forward. The US version also contains incorrect address information.
Importance Notice
After considerable thought and with an ache in my heart, I have decided that the time has come to close down the Hoax-Slayer website.These days, the site does not generate enough revenue to cover expenses, and I do not have the financial resources to sustain it going forward.
Moreover, I now work long hours in a full-time and physically taxing job, so maintaining and managing the website and publishing new material has become difficult for me.
And finally, after 18 years of writing about scams and hoaxes, I feel that it is time for me to take my fingers off the keyboard and focus on other projects and pastimes.
When I first started Hoax-Slayer, I never dreamed that I would still be working on the project all these years later or that it would become such an important part of my life. It's been a fantastic and engaging experience and one that I will always treasure.
I hope that my work over the years has helped to make the Internet a little safer and thwarted the activities of at least a few scammers and malicious pranksters.
A Big Thank You
I would also like to thank all of those wonderful people who have supported the project by sharing information from the site, contributing examples of scams and hoaxes, offering suggestions, donating funds, or helping behind the scenes.I would especially like to thank David White for his tireless contribution to the Hoax-Slayer Facebook Page over many years. David's support has been invaluable, and I can not thank him enough.
Closing Date
Hoax-Slayer will still be around for a few weeks while I wind things down. The site will go offline on May 31, 2021. While I will not be publishing any new posts, you can still access existing material on the site until the date of closure.Thank you, one and all!
Brett Christensen,
Hoax-Slayer
