Email Warnings and a little Life Lesson


Recently Jo-Anne got an email about a missing 16 year old young man. Here is the sad story:

Amber Alert.

Staff Sergeant Rick Williams
Wichita Falls Police Dept.
1007 N. Elm St .
Wichita Falls , Texas 76310
(940) 696-3671
Fax (940) 691-6346

Please look at the picture, read what his mother says, then forward this message on.
My 15 year old boy, Evan Trembley, is missing.
He has been missing for now two weeks.

Maybe if everyone passes this on, someone will see this child.
That is how the girl from Stevens Point was found by circulation
of her picture on tv. The internet circulates even overseas,
South America , and Canada etc.
Please pass this to everyone in your address book.
With GOD on his side he will be found.

"I am asking you all, begging you to please
forward this email on to anyone and everyone
you know, PLEASE.

It is still not too late. Please help us. If anyone
knows anything, please contact me at:
HelpfindEvanTrembley@yahoocom
I am including a picture of him.

All prayers are appreciated! ! "

It only takes 2 seconds to forward this.

This is so sad, any one who is a parent can feel the pain the mom must be going through. The sad part of this story is, it's totally false. While there is a Evan Trembly, he is not missing, he is doing good, thank you very much. The whole thing is a hoax. You can read the story here. Now the story Jo-Anne received puts young Evan in the BC Interior, in fact this story went through official channels before it reached her. The locations have been changed and will be changed, but its the same thing, a total hoax.

If the Internet has done anything, besides Dragostea tin dei, its breath new life into urban legends. It is so prevalent that a number of sites have arisen just to give us information on urban legends. One of the best is snopes.com.

Now for the life lesson; if you receive an email about an Amber Alert, there will be a very good chance it is false. Police for some reason would rather inform the public of an Amber Alert through the news media rather then through email. I suppose it has to do with the fact that most local police departments do not have everyone's email. Sure CSIS probably does (Hi Andrew), but most police don't. In fact to give an example, did you notice very few emails were sent about Brandon Crisp. Almost none.

If you get any email that you are suspicious may be a hoax, simply do a google search, you suspicions may be validated when the first result has the word "hoax" some where in the title.

That's it for the life lesson. Now you'll have to excuse me, I've got to help this poor woman get 51 Million Dollars out of her country.

Just kidding.