Outrage over fake SMS wanting blood for baby

 

UAE residents are requesting this menace to stop before lives are endangered because of this

By

    Bindu Suresh Rai

Published Monday, March 05, 2012

Many UAE residents had their BlackBerry Messenger pinging through the day, when an urgent message was being passed on for a baby in desperate need of blood.

The text simply stated: "A baby needs AB+ blood immediately. Contact Archana on 050 99*****. Don't delete. Your small SMS will save a baby [sic]."

When contacted by Emirates 24|7, the number simply did not exist.

It wasn't long before frustrated BlackBerry users started to update their status to state the obvious, with one such message saying: "Please no more forwards of baby saving. There is no Archana who wants blood for her baby. This is a fake forward."

This is not the first time in the past couple of years that BlackBerry users have been plagued with fake messages requesting an urgent need for blood. The blood type and contact number changes, but calls to the number result in a dead signal.

"It really is despicable to see people having a laugh by creating such fake messages that carry a note of an urgent appeal," said Meethi Sen, a mother of two. "And to use a baby is worse than anything I can imagine."

Sen isn't alone in her outrage; many other residents have come forward to pass on the message through status updates over their BlackBerrys and social media to stop this menace of fake forwards that has gripped the UAE of late.

John Mason, a chartered accountant said: "It's turning into a case of the boy who cried wolf. There are so many fake messages that have infiltrated by phone and my social media accounts that when there is a real urgency for a blood donation, many of us will simply hit the delete button thinking another message that is fake.

"These pranksters who are getting their cheap thrills this way are not realising that lives could be endangered in such instances."

Aalam Mehdi, a concerned resident, said that it should be the responsibility of those receiving the message to check the truth behind it before hitting the forward button.

"If there's a number on a message, I never blindly forward it on. I take the effort to pick up the phone and simply check if it does pan out. For all you know, there could be someone on the other line desperate; allow them the benefit of the doubt."

In past few months rumour mills have churned out many fake messages and forwards through BlackBerrys and social media outlets, including Twitter and Facebook that have gone beyond urgent appeals for blood.

Of the fake events reported here, there was the fake Burj Khalifa blaze that turned out to be fog; an earthquake that never shook residents up; and a cyclone that supposedly was disguised as a sandstorm.

 

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