Spreading a Hoax? What's the Attraction?

I see this sort of thing on almost a daily basis. In fact on Facebook this morning I intercepted this:

7yr old with Cancer, from Rosebush, MI ....Hi my name is Amy Bruce, I am 7yrs old and I have a large tumor on my brain and severe lung cancer. The doctors say I will die soon if this isn't fixed, and my family can't pay the bill's. The Make A Wish Foundation has agreed to donate $7 for every time this message is sent on. For those of you who send this along, I Thank You so much. But for those who don't send it, I will pray for you. Please put this as your status for an hour

This one is a hoax/chain letter that has been going around since 1999. I frequently see a variety of WARNINGS on Facebook with many copies being reposted. Just about all of these warnings are false, a hoax. Yet the people reposting them just merrily copy and paste and give no thought to the validity of the claim. These claims are actually very easy to check out. If you're in the mood to copy and paste just do this:

Highlight: 7 year old with cancer, from Rosebush, MI

Right click and copy, then paste to a Google search.

You will be presented with many different pages describing the nature of the hoax. It takes no more effort to do this than it does to blindly copy and paste the hoax to your Facebook status.

Hoax emails seem to have the same attraction. A few people pass the time sending me outrageous claims on email that they have collected from another hoax passer. They never bother to check out the validity.

I don't get it. Are a lot of people that trusting and that gullible just to take everything they see on the internet at face value? Well heck yeah. Michele Bachmann must realize this as she spreads lies about mental retardation and the HPV virus. Our friend Algore knows this too and he has made millions spreading his man made global warming hoax. Most of the United States congress would have us believe we are in debt because the rich don't pay enough taxes.......another lie and a hoax.

There's a sucker born every minute. Who said that?