This story was first published on January 31st, 2009
Outline
Circulating message claims that you can help provide food for abused and neglected animals simply by clicking a button on the Animal Rescue Site.
Brief Analysis
The information in the message is true. When a visitor clicks the purple button on the website, another web page opens that includes advertisements from various corporate sponsors. All fees paid for these advertisements are given to charities that provide food for animals in need.
Example:
Subject: FW: help homeless animals for free
PLEASE DO THIS ‘FREE’ GOOD DEED – Animal Rescue:
Hi, all you animal lovers. This is pretty simple… Please tell ten friends to tell ten today! The Animal Rescue Site is having trouble getting enough people to click on it daily to meet their quota of getting free food donated every day to abused and neglected animals.
It takes less than a minute (How about 20 seconds) to go to their site and click on the purple box that says “Click here to Give – It’s Free!” You don’t have to fill anything out, and it’s just counting clicks.
This doesn’t cost you a thing. Their corporate sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate food to abandoned/neglected animals in exchange for advertising. Here’s the web site! Pass it along to people you know.
http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/
PLEASE TELL 10 FRIENDS !!!
Detailed Analysis
This message, which circulates via email and social media posts, claims that you can help abused and neglected animals by doing no more than visiting The Animal Rescue Site and clicking a button. According to the message, corporate sponsors donate food to abandoned and neglected animals in exchange for advertising on the website.
The information in the message is true. When a visitor clicks the purple button on the website, another web page opens that includes advertisements from various corporate sponsors. All fees paid for these advertisements are given to charities that provide food for animals in need. Information on the Animal Rescue Site FAQ explains:
In just a few seconds each day, visitors can click on the large colored button on each home page and, at no cost to them, support causes they care about. Donations are paid for by the website’s sponsors and distributed by GreaterGood.org and its charity partners.
To learn more about current projects supported by these programs, please see the GreaterGood blog.
100% of sponsor advertising fees goes to our charitable partners.
Further money for food is raised via The Animal Rescue Site store. A portion of revenue generated from every purchase is donated to the site’s charitable partners.
It should be noted that The Animal Rescue Site is NOT a non-profit organization and does not claim to be one. However, it has helped feed animals in need by raising funds for millions of kilograms of much-needed food.
Clicks on The Animal Rescue Site fund many thousands of bowls of food for animals. A great many additional bowls of food were funded via the site store.
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
