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Tuesday 20 September 2011

Crime Intelligence Unit Targeted by Hoaxter

Hi all,

It's been a while since my last post for two reasons.  Firstly, I've been busy doing a whole lot of nothing and, secondly, there hasn't been much that's caught my interest up until now.

There is currently a message doing the rounds via both bbm and e-mail as follows:

Dear friend 

The Executive Mayor's Chief of Staff, Mr Bheza Ntshona, has picked up this important message from the SAPS:

THIS MESSAGE IS FOR EVERY MAN, BOY, WOMEN, OR GIRL WHO GOES TO WORK, COLLEGE OR SCHOOL ALONE.  IF YOU FIND A CHILD CRYING ON THE ROAD SHOWING HIS/HER Address AND ASKING YOU TO TAKE HIM/HER TO THE Address , IMMEDIATELY TAKE THAT CHILD TO THE POLICE STATION AND PLEASE DO NOT TAKE THE CHILD TO THE PLACE HE/SHE ASKS.  THIS IS A NEW WAY TO GANG RAPE WOMEN AND GIRLS, ROB AND KILL MEN AND BOYS.

PLEASE ALSO DO NOT ACCEPT FREE KEY HOLDERS AT SERVICE STATIONS IT HAS A TRACKER DEVICE IN IT BY WHICH YOU CAN BE FOLLOWED.  THIS IS ALREADY HAPPENING IN JOHANNESBURG AND DURBAN. PLEASE SEND TO AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE.

COL MK KRUGER
CRIME INTELLIGENCE
012 360 1058

Working together we can build better communities!

I did a bit of further digging and found that both of incidents in the message have been verified as hoaxes.  This had also been posted on a crime prevention Web site and in addition to the above contact number a cell phone number was also listed.  I gave the number a buzz and got hold of Lt Col MJ Krugel (not Col MK Kruger) and had a chat to him.  He has no knowledge what-so-ever of the message which I duly forwarded to him together with the links for the Web site that has investigated the alleged incidents and debunked them (links below).

Should you receive this message kindly inform the sender that it is a hoax and ask them to do the same with regards to the person that they received it from.



5 comments:

  1. Yay - thanks for this. I just got the same mail from a well-meaning friend and immediately googled it, suspecting it was a hoax.
    I found the snope links but particularly liked yours as you actually phoned SAPS - I've sent this link back to her and asked her to distribute it.
    Ai, it's so easy to prey on the paranoid these days!
    Thank you!

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  2. Hi there,

    Thanks so much for the feedback. Glad it helped! Happy to seethat there are people out there that have the good sense to double check before sending something on. I have a background in Internet and Information Security and it used to hack me off when people I know sent me stuff like this. Now they ask me to check first. Good on you! Have an awesome evening ;-p

    Sal

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  3. Looks like the hoax is doing its rounds again just received the almost exact same message on bbm.

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  4. Thanks for this! Wonder what the motivation is to set up these sorts of hoaxes in the first place? Some folks have too much time on their hands and too little true imagination to put it to use for any useful purpose.

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  5. I have t check everything my mother sends me or I find on the internet. people are too willing to believe something merely because it's on the internet. This even comes in the form of Pro-tea party right wing ramblings where the author has linked Bill Cosby as the writer just so it gains some weight behind the drivel. It get's ridiculous.

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