According to the story, Shergold very badly wants to collect enough postcard s to get into the Guinness Book of Records. The usual message includes Shergold's address and a plea to send postcards. This story turns out to be essentially true-but out of date. Craig Shergold exists, was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and actually earned the postcard record back in 1989. Shergold is now in his teens, but the postcards keep flowing in, much to the consternation of the British Postal Ser vice and the hospital at which he was treated.
Most urban myths are, by their very nature, at least superficially believable.
The organization that supposedly originated the message is not one you would expect to be involved in such things. In general, you should think twice before forwarding or replying to suspicious messages. Forwarded e-mail can take on a life of its own. Some messages have an urgency about them that compels otherwise reasonable people to pass them on to everyon e they know. In some cases, this includes mailing lists containing hundreds, or even thousands, of people.