-----Mensagem original-----
De: John Breen, The Hunger Site
Para: rosana hermann
Data: Quarta-feira, 21 de Julho de 1999 12:16
Assunto: Re: To Mr. John Breed

Dear Rosana Hermann,

I am sorry that it has taken me so long to get back to you. I did not get your e-mail until this morning. I am sending this to both your e-mail addresses to make sure you get it. I will call you on the telephone as well.

I want to thank you for two things. First, thank you very much for helping to make the Hunger Site so popular in Brazil. Judging from the response, you live in a very generous country and you must be a very generous, good-hearted person yourself.

Second, I want to thank you for asking about the relationship between Otis Clapp-Buffington and the Hunger Site rather than just repeating rumors on the Internet. I am happy to tell you the facts of the matter. My father owns Otis Clapp-Buffington (Otis Clapp & Son, Inc.). The company is over 150 years old. He has owned it for more than 30 years.

When I started the Hunger Site, I could not find a sponsor. It is a new idea and companies were not sure why they would want to give a lot of money to hungry people in return for sponsoring a site. So my father kindly offered to be my first sponsor until I could find another. At that time, Otis Clapp-Buffington did not have an Internet site, so I told them that I would set it up for them so that they could sponsor the site. I would do the same for any other sponsor.

Please note that other than this there is absolutely no connection between the Hunger Site and Otis Clapp. I do not work for them. They do not own or are financially connected with the Hunger Site in any way. The Hunger Site is a completely independent website. We treat Otis Clapp exactly like we would any other sponsor. As you can verify with the United Nations World Food Program, they have paid some $15,000 and are continuing to pay for donations.

My father is a good man, but his company is not large enough to fund all the donations as our site gets larger. That is why I am actively seeking very large corporate sponsors right now, so that the site can handle potentially millions of donations. As soon as we find them, Otis Clapp-Buffington will either stop sponsoring the Hunger Site altogether or do so on a very limited basis.

The Hunger Site is only about seven weeks old. It opened on June 1. I can tell you that I have worked full time on the Hunger Site for six months (since January) without drawing a penny in salary or compensation of any kind. I am 42 years old, my wife has a job, and I am doing this because it is good thing to do, not because I am trying to get rich.

Rosana, I am personally guaranteeing you and staking my entire personal credibility that everything on the Hunger Site is as promised. If you have any questions at all, please let me know and I will be happy to answer them for you. And thank you once again for your efforts on behalf of the Hunger Site. I can promise you that they will be rewarded.

Sincerely,

John Breen
President
The Hunger Site

.................

----- Original Message -----
From: rosana hermann
To:
Sent: Tuesday, July 20, 1999 3:41 PM
Subject: To Mr. John Breed

Dear Mr. John,

My name is Rosana Hermann.

I feel partially responsible for the forty thousand donations from Brazil that suddenly came up, since July 12th, when I started an unexpected chain by sending an e-mail to some friends, recommending The Hunger Site.

My original email, on July 12th, found 444 donations from my country. Today, there are 44 thousand, just this month. I read about The Hunger Site in a Brazilian Newspaper called O Globo, on the same day and sent one thousand e-mails to my personal contacts.

It could have turned out to have one thousand donations on that day. However, I am a public person on a very popular Brazilian Television Network. I am the hostess of a daily, live, national, morning news show, called "Fala, Brasil", equivalent to 'Good Morning America'.

So, the credibility I have built in the past 20 years in the media, made everyone forward my e-mail to thousands and thousands of other people. Among them, some internet specialists wrote back stating that the whole site was a fraud. That the person who registrated the domain name thehungersite.com at Internic, John Breed, was the same who registered the domain name of the one and only sponsor, Otis Clapp & Sons. And plus, the e-mail was a free yahoo address.

These facts shook up the credibility of The Hunger Site, according to some journalists specialized in the Internet and we started sending e-mails to the United Nations and Bureaus in the USA to evaluate whether this is regular or not. I even called the Otis Clapp & Sons and talked to Dan, who said he would send my phone number to you.

I really hope and believe you are all very respectful people and that I will not deceive 40 thousand friends who believe in my recommendation.

So, I beg you, with all my God-guided heart, please answer me back.

yours truly,

rosanahermann@uol.com.br
rosanah@uol.com.br