Journal entry for October 11, 2001
Today's summary: "Mall-o-ween" terrorist rumor scare.
I got yet another copy of that "Stay away from malls on Halloween!"
rumor, and finally got fed up enough to do a Reply All with this
response:
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Subject: RE: Fwd: Stay away from malls on Oct 31 (FALSE!
Don't help them terrorize us!)
Maybe someday people will realize that forwarding secondhand
information is the internet equivalent of taking candy from
strangers...
As usual, the "Malls are dangerous on Halloween!" story is
yet another FALSE mass-forwarded internet rumor.
http://www.snopes2.com/rumors/mallrisk.htm
Please DON'T HELP the terrorists scare us by forwarding things
like this!
The FBI has stated, repeatedly, that all known versions of
this rumor are untrue -- they have no letter as this rumor
claims, and they aren't questioning the girl (as other versions
claim).
Disclaimers like "I'm not sure it's true, but it can't hurt
to pass it along anyway" DO hurt us. As a nation we're already
in a delicate, anxious state and there's NO reason to make
things worse by scaring people baselessly.
Reliable news does NOT spread via email.
IF you feel truly obliged to forward rumors, stories from
"a friend of a friend", virus warnings, et cetera... at the
very least, please check around with SEVERAL reputable news
sources, before perpetuating a rumor like this. At the very
least, please check the many websites available that investigate
urban legends and rumors... the ones that actually give sources
for their proof.
-=- Jen Gagne
jen@beware-of-art.com
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The friend who sent it wrote back and said she'd learned a valuable
lesson, woo! Plus another person replied and thanked me, and we
got to talking. New pen pal, I guess.
I knew the sender had the absolute best intentions, and in a way
I feel bad for yelping about it so publically, but I mean, I figured
it was necessary in case more of those people passed that on.
To me this particular chain letter feels kind of like spreading
around a bomb scare threat without checking to see if the authorities
knew about it. Might as well run through the building yelling "Fire!
Fire!" based on a rumor, instead of pulling a fire alarm, yanno?
The FBI has actually been putting out warnings, but they're not
specific. Based on their statements though, I seriously doubt Halloween
is any more -- or less -- dangerous than other recent days, unfortunately.
:( At this point if something does happen at a mall on Halloween
I wouldn't be surprised if it were somebody pulling a prank that
was inspired by this particular email chain. Or, quite probably
this email chain was started as a ruse to just freak people out...
Or maybe I'm just starting to get old and cranky, huh?
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