TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Man Charged in UK Tsunami Death Email Probe


Man Charged in UK Tsunami Death Email Probe


Lisa Minter (lisa_minter2001@yahoo.com)
Mon, 3 Jan 2005 10:29:37 EST

LONDON (Reuters) - British police said on Monday they had charged a
man with sending hoax emails to relatives of people missing since the
Asian tsunami, saying their loved ones had been confirmed dead.

The hoaxer, claiming to be from the "Foreign Office Bureau" in
Thailand, targeted people who had placed appeals for information about
relatives and friends on the Web site of TV station Sky News.

Police said a 40-year-old man from Lincolnshire in northeastern
England was charged with malicious communication and causing a public
nuisance.

He was due to appear at a London court on Monday.

On Sunday, officers seized computer equipment in a joint operation by
London's Metropolitan Police and Lincolnshire police.

All the messages came from one bogus email address,
ukgovfoffice@aol.com .

"The British government would not use email to convey news of the
death of a loved one," police said. "Anyone receiving such an email
should treat it with utmost caution."

Sky News said it was "disgusted" at the abuse of the message board on
its Web site and had contacted police as soon as it was alerted to the
hoaxes.

The death toll from the tsunami, triggered by a magnitude 9.0
earthquake off western Indonesia a week ago, stood at almost 130,000
on Monday, including at least 40 Britons.

NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily
media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at
http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra . New articles daily.

*** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the
use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright
owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without
profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the
understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic
issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I
believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material
as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish
to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go
beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright
owner, in this instance, Reuters News Service.

For more information go to:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml

Post Followup Article Use your browser's quoting feature to quote article into reply
Go to Next message: Max Mustermann: "Tsunami Treatment by US Consulate of Arriving Passengers"
Go to Previous message: Telecom dailyLead from USTA: "Analysis: Big Changes Lie Ahead for Telecom Sector"
TELECOM Digest: Home Page