Friendster messages

I hate hoaxes. I don't know why people find it believable enough to actually copy, paste and resend them whether it is through E-mail, Friendster or their blogs. They're elements of the Internet which I wish to not associate with. For example this one:

Cara Terbaru Menyebar HIV POSITIF VIRUS PENYAKIT AIDS

Berikut adalah artikel yang perlu diambil perhatian sekiranya anda belum membacanya. Sila baca artikel berikut mengenai orang yang HIV positif seronok menyebarkan virus HIV. Ianya pernah ke udara di dalam Televisyen Thai dimana pesakit HIV ditangkap & didakwa, tapi apa gunanya, beliau telah merosakkan ramai orang awam yang tak berdosa. Jadi sila berhati-hati. Beberapa tempat berbahaya dan kebarangkalian menemui jarum penyuntik yang telah digunakan penagih:

1.Di kawasan pantai. Apabila anda berjalan di pantai sila pakai selipar sebab jarum yang ada HIV telah terdedah dan menimbus jarum penyuntik di dalam pasir. Penyuntik ini kemudiannya terdedah akibat ombak.
2.Di kawasan permainan kanak-kanak. Satu lagi kawasan pilihan penagih.Terdapat kes di Australia di mana kanak-kanak yg tak berdosa telah tercucuk jarum penyuntik apabila beliau turun daripada papan lunsur kemudiannya didapati HIV positif.

3.Di panggung wayang. Sila pastikan kerusi yg anda duduki. Kes yang terjadi apabila seorang perempuan duduk di kerusi beliau dan terasa sesuatu benda mencucuk. Beliau berdiri dan mendapati ada penyuntik dan nota berbunyi "Welcome to the real world, you are now HIV positive". Doktor telah memeriksa jarum tersebut & mengesahkan ianya terdapat virus HIV. Ianya berlaku di Hawai jadi berhati-hati.

4.Di Georgia & Florida, ada kes menunjukkan pesakit HIV meletakkan penyuntik di dalam tempat mengembalikan syiling, mesin air minuman… jadi pastikan bila anda membeli air atau kandi, perhatikan betul-betul tempat mengembalikan wang mungkin terdapat jarum penyuntik di dalamnya.

Ini adalah nyawa anda. Sila 'foward' maklumat ini kepada orang lain, especially keluarga, kawan2 dan sesiapa sahaja…

Dr Yasmin Anum Mohd Yusof

Associate Professor & Head Dept. of Chemical Pathology

School of Medical Sciences USM

Classic online hoax that has probably gone on for 4-5 years. How classy is that! Putting a real name with some sort of a title from a real University. Oh lorrrd! Switch on the propaganda speakers: THIS MUST BE ANNOUNCED IMMEDIATELY!

Can this be real you ask? Common sense has never failed me (it was circulated on Friendster) but if you insist, a simple Google test will do the trick. There are a lot of websites that kindly informs the public of hoaxes. Although, this particular message has a minor setback: it is in Malay. I have never seen a website archiving various Malay hoaxes, Google seem to think so too.

So being jobless and annoyed (lethal combination, I know), I emailed the person who will know most about this. The bearer of the name signed at the bottom. In this case, Dr Yasmin.

Armed with pedantic grammatical skills and over the top writing repertoire, I am set to email this Dr Yasmin (Doh, I Googled her email address).

Dear Dr Yasmin,

Recently there has been a number of Friendster messages spreading bearing your name and credentials. They are of questionable nature concerning new ways in which HIV can spread. I am emailing you to confirm whether you have indeed written such article or if it is in fact a hoax.

Maurina

And she replied promptly!

Dear Maurina,

This is a hoax message, it has been circulated over 5 years now, and someone very irresponsible has used my name for making the news a more credible one!!!!

Sincerely,

Dr Yasmin

Okay, now I can sleep at night. I hate hoaxes. Marah ku marah.