What would possess some moron to create a fake fund raising scheme is beyond me, however, this is exactly what someone did.
A fake message being spread around BlackBerry Messenger says the following:
Because of what has transpired in Haiti recently, Blackberry has decided to help out and give 35 cents for the cause when you pass this message along to your friends on BBM.
This clearly isn’t an official message from RIM. For starters, RIM would never refer to themselves as Blackberry. Secondly, Blackberry is actually spelled BlackBerry… Both Bs are capitalized.
Research in Motion is giving whomever started this message the benefit of the doubt. An official RIM spokesperson says maybe, “the message originated from a legitimately confused user (who misunderstood some other unrelated news about charitable organizations raising funds through the texting medium), or perhaps the information morphed after passing through a string of people”.
If you do want to legitimately donate to the relief efforts for earthquake victims in Hati, I sincerely hope that you do, text HAITI to 90999. A $10 donation will be made to the Red Cross and a $10 charge added to your mobile bill.
[Via MSNBC.com]