-----Original Message-----
De: Cherico, Holly
Para: 'rosana hermann'
Cc: Weiner, Bennett
Data: Terça-feira, 20 de Julho de 1999 08:40
Assunto: RE: An urgent information for a Brazilian journalist

Dear Ms. Hermann: By copy of this response, I'm forwarding your request for information to Bennett Weiner, director of the Council's Philanthropic Advisory Service (PAS). He'll be in touch with you shortly to let you know if PAS has any information on this charity. Holly Cherico, CBBB

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-----Original Message-----
From: rosana hermann [mailto:rosanah@uol.com.br]
Sent: Monday, July 19, 1999 3:25 PM
To: hcherico@cbbb.bbb.org
Subject: An urgent information for a Brazilian journalist

Dear Holly Cherico
Vice President, Communications
Council of Better Business Bureaus

My name is Rosana Hermann, and I am a tv hostess for a live daily news show in the third biggest Brazilian network. I have been inclined to recommend a site called The Hunger Site (http://www.thehungersite.com) where visitors are invited to click a button and so, donate free food for hungry children throughout the world.

My personnal recommendations to a private list of friends, grew up to reach more than 30 thousand hits in this site. I have not even mentioned it on air. However, one of my friends is not sure whether the site is serious and states it is a fraud.

If it is, I will have to say it on television. And if it is not, I must prevent him from writing e-mails to hundreds of donators.

I reached your name through a site which was recommended by The Hunger Site. I have contacted them by e-mail but they did not write back, so I am a little worried.

Hoping to hear from you, I thank you for the attention given.

Rosana Hermann
rosanah@uol.com.br

-----Original Message-----
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

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----- 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

From: "Anthea Webb"
To: rosanah@uol.com.br
CC: RALeach@msn.com, "Kartini Oppusunggu" , "Francis Mwanza" , "Aleesa Blum" , "WEBAdmin"
Date: Fri, 30 Jul 1999 19:41:10 +0200
Subject: Re: An urgent help about a possible fraud involving the name of UN

Dear Ms. Hermann,

Thank you for your email enquiring about The Hunger Site.

I am pleased to confirm that The Hunger Site, an independent website created to fight hunger, has chosen to give the donations it generates via the internet to WFP.

WFP is grateful for the contributions received from sponsors of The Hunger Site, using the money to provide desperately needed food assistance to hungry people in 80 countries around the world.

The Hunger Site is an innovative new tool to help feed the hungry. Visitors to the site are invited to donate a serving of food by clicking on a button. The donations are paid for by corporate sponsors. Cash donations equivalent to more than a million servings of food have been donated since the site opened in June 1999.

You might like to contact Mr Francis Mwanza in our Public Affairs section for more detailed information

For more information about WFP click here
http://www.wfp.org/info/index.html
To make a donation directly to WFP click here
http://www.wfp.org/kosovoalert/index.htm

With best wishes,

Anthea Webb
Resources Communications Officer
WFP


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WEBAdmin
20/07/99 05:51

To: Resources@WFP
cc: Subject: Re: An urgent help about a possible fraud involving the name of UN (Document link not converted)
"rosana hermann" on 07/20/99 12:30:04 AM
Please respond to "rosana hermann"

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

To: WEBAdmin/SP/WFP
cc:
Subject: An urgent help about a possible fraud involving the name of UN

Dear Sirs,

My name is Rosana Hermann. I am a journalista and a TV hostess in a daily, live morning-news-show, in the third biggest television network in Brazil.

I have indicated a site called The Hunger Site, (http://www.thehungersite.com) to thousands and thousands of people because they offer the possibilility of donating food to hungry children, by clicking on a button. The donation is sponsored. They have, on air right now, a text saying that this food will be given to starving children throught the United Nations World Food Program, as shown below:

http://www.thehungersite.com/donationstodate.html

DONATIONS TO DATE

. Organization Currently Receiving Donations United Nations World Food Program (WFP). This is the frontline UN organization fighting hunger and the world largest food aid organization, working in 80 countries.

. July Sponsors

Back-Quell (Otis Clapp-Buffington)
Dover Pharmaceutical Inc.
Heart-Trex (Otis Clapp-Buffington)

I have searched all of the UN pages and found no evidence that this donation is real and the possible money or food is going to the UN's WFP. However, today, the BBC of London recommended the site, interviewed its founder and said it is no fraud.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/newsroom/990719_charity.html

I really need to know whether this is a fraud or not, because I must give a public answer on television.

Thanking you for your attention, and hoping to hear from you as soon as possible,

Rosana Hermann
rosanah@uol.com.br