I got this mail from a “reliable” source on Friday regarding an alleged missing person named Evan Trembley.
I did something unusual: I didn’t validate the information or in other words as Winston Churchill sez: “I didn’t seek out the raw data”.
I figured such an important notice regarding a missing person cannot, but cannot , be a hoax.
BOY WAS I WRONG!!!!
Dear home grown boy prankster:
- its not that I took the trouble of posting your ad
- its not that I rigged my tags in order to accellerate traffic since I deemed this important enough
- its not that I notified via mail, and had to apologize later, our local organization that deals with child abuse and such matter
Its that it is beyond me how someone could joke about such a matter when today, there are so many missing children (my sidebar has two that haven’t been solved yet, and in reality there are myriads!!!) and the number seems to be growing.
I can only say one thing:
I hope, that whoever the real prankster is, that he/she doesn’t end up like the kid in the story that we have so many times read about, or heard when we were children.
Each dog has his day!!!!
It’s really sad that people put stuff like that out there and think it’s funny.
11/6/2007
You horrible rotten person. Do you know that now people
won’t automatically send these out to all of their friends?
They will have to take the chance to make sure it is real,
and seems none of us have time for both, ….it won’t get done.
YOU HAVE TAKEN AWAY A TOOL THAT WAS VERY VALUABLE
AND MADE IT USELESS . YOU STUPID SELF-CENTERED FOOL.
11/6/2007
This is so horrible. I wasted time making sure this got to
everyone. And the really really sad thing is I will never
help again, the only other one I ever did was Madeline
McCann. How I wish that was just a joke.
But we all felt so scared for evaan and it turns out
he ruined it for so many that would use this method
to try and find their dear children.
I hope he goes to jail for this , so many lives he has
taken away hope for by his self-centered stupidity.
Guys, what really pisses me off with all of this is that, as Sherry correctly points out, the internet is indeed a valuable asset for communicating. When such pranks take place, this tool that can be used over and over again for the common good, has the danger of being rendered useless, a true disservice to all that need it; not only missing children, but ill people, lonely people and generally people seeking information!
Again, the next time I receive such a mail, I will NOT block it but rather exhaustively seek out and confirm its validity. I will then take the steps that are necessary.
People won’t forward this crap anymore? Woohoo!
I got it through a reliable source but I googled it before deciding whether to send it out to my list of friends. I’m glad I took the couple of seconds to do so. Now, I just have to tell my reliable source that it’s a hoax.
You were much more prudent than I was. I fell into the trap first and then climbed out of it.
I just received this “evan tremblay” email. Personally, I don’t receive a lot of the missing child emails, but when i do, i will take the time to do a quick search.
My initial reason for doing a search is to see if the child had been found, there are some emails that get forwarded, and people don’t pay attention to the fact that it is well over a year old. I would hate to think of the idea of it getting back to someone who was effected personally by this event of a missing child who was possibly found dead! Or one who has lost another child, who possibly has not dealt with it so well.
But if I find that the email is a hoax, then I will reply to the person who sent it to me (as well as the other people listed in the email from the forwards) and give them a link to where I found the information about the hoax.
One problem with people saying that they don’t think to look into the information they receive from a “reliable” source is that your reliable source or their reliable source could be a rather lazy person, who is always rushing about, not taking time to THINK!
The internet makes things fast and convenient, and sometimes, that is not always a good thing. People are too lazy and in too much of a rush now a days…
Slow down people, you may miss a real opportunity to help someone.
Good points. One question:
Since by forwarding these mails we are hoping to perform a public service, and since most of us are very busy, this forwarding relies on faith and credibility. If we dismiss this aspect, should we simply NOT forward these mails if we don’t have the time to properly validate the source (which may take alot of time?)? If we consider that alot of people do take personal time in performing this public service, and this personal time works in an opportunity cost manner, then if we cannot validate properly (whatever this means) the source then we will render the internet useless for such matters since most mails will get block. That has something to do regarding credibilty and when something runs afoul,screaming it out and discrediting the entity that is the source of the foul; sorta like business you know.
I always google and 99.9% of the time find it to be a HOAX. Then I send the link for the hoax report back to the sender.
Yep! did the same thing.
My good friend sent it to me as we have children and she said it was too sad not to send. I googled it first before sending and have since sent her the info. I always google for info or check the ‘truth or fiction.com’ website before sending anything out, which in truth slows down response time for an actual missing child, mother, friend, etc. There are those who feel if they have to check the validity before sending that they won’t bother with it. I’ll continue to do so. For the 100 that are hoaxes there may be 1 or 2 that are true and need to be sent to help find someone. To those who send misinformation, shame on you!
In total agreement Karen. I’ll incorporate truth or fiction into my sidebar. Thanks for the tip.
http://www.ncmec.org is the website for the National Center for missing and exploited children. There is a quick search box where you can enter a child’s name. It’s an effective way to sort out the hoax. They receive copies of the hoax emails and are well aware of who is “not missing”.
Thanks Cindy. I have in my sidebar the local centre that deals with abused and missing children (its the yellow ad right above unicef) and it indeed corresponds with ncmec. I’ll put ncmec on my sidebar (web sites) just in case. Thanks again./tony
I’m glad I checked if the boy had been found before I forwarded. I find out it is a hoax, that there have been other hoaxs and thankfully a link for me to check quickly in future. Does anyone know if any of the sites mentioned above are international? I’m in Australia.
@ Sherry:
It takes 30 seconds to type the name into google, and if it is not real than the first thing to pop up is something that will verify that exact fact. If not, feel free to send it everywhere!
yo, dude….evan or whom ever you are..
YOu are dispicable!!!!!!!
Its people like you who get people killed!! you dumb sob!!!
hey maybe next time you’ll think first about other people, like all of us who actually do give a crap for strangers in need! hey think about it…
what if you ever did get hurt or something real bad happens, and a apb gets sent out for you, knowing that you have the ability to “cry wolf”, do you think that people might think twice the next time?
I pray for you still, although I’m seriously ticked off, you need help.
it just goes to show how sick some people are out there, and how far they will go for a ‘laugh’!
i knew immediately it was a hoax just by looking at it, but of course i searched it before making any assumptions.
im glad that a small percentage of you did the same and used their plain old common sense before mindlessly pressing the forward button.
(btw, i didn’t even get the message in an email; it is currently circulating on facebook)
I just got this Evan Trembley email from a cousin in Australia.
Like a few of you I decided to check before I forwarded it as the kids could have already been found.
I don’t know who you are but what a sad piece of work you are.
It was Evan Trembley himself who started the hoax.
I got this e-mail as well, it had been forwarded several time sto around 100 people before it reached me.
A spammer could have a field day if he got forwarded all those addresses.
you know, i never thought in a million years i would see a scam like this one, i recieved the email and the first thought that came to my mind was OMG what if my son ever went missing, and i rushed and forwarded this email. i know it only takes a few seconds to google but as a mother all you want to do is find this boy for his parents. this is truly sad and it dissappoints me tremendously! i hope they catch this kid or person whom ever it is and they go to jail for a long time even if it is for just ruining other childrens chances in being found through the internet. as all of you that said in the above comments this is a very usefull tool to find other missing children and i definately will think twice before sending another one out. i sure hope that next one i get is a hoax because if it was real i would feel bad for that child, no one will believe these emails again!
you know maybe the place for these kind of people that send out these scams is in an institution, only sick people can think this is funny. having the whole world out looking for someone that doesn’t exist while there are children being rapped, beating, and tortured every day and only dream about going back to their loving mommy and daddy’s!!!!
Sadly, it is still going…and it’s Feb 17th…but I also sent a message back to my source to tell her it’s all a hoax.
Received this today from my sister-in-law. Seeing as it didn’t indicate where he was missing from, I decided to google his name and was led to this site indicating that it is all a scam. How sad that some people think this is just a joke and do not think of any damage they might doing when a REAL child is missing. I have let all my contacts know that this e-mail is a scam and hopefully it will soon stop circulating, although I seem to think that it will probably go on for a long time as most people just want to help in any way they can when they think they are helping a missing person – especially a child.
I had seen this EVERYWHERE on facebook, myspace, and just this morning i got an email about it and it had said that he once lived in Findly ohio, which is around my area, so thinking that maybe i knew this kid and there could be something i could do to help, i looked his name up under “ask” and EVERYTHING was saying it was a hoax, so i emailed the number they give …”helpfindevantrembley@yahoo.com” and i asked if it was real, then i went on to not say that i knew for sure it was a hoax but i looked it up and it said it was, then i said how sick it was that he was wasting the precious time of other lost children and that if he needed attention or felt the need to look cool in front of his friends that maybe he should seek help and think about who his “real” friends were….and in bold big print THINK BEFORE YOUR ACTIONS, i cant change what he did, and he may not get punished by law, but why not make the kid feel guilty as hell for what he did…….
sorry not the nuber they gave but the email…..DUH
If you want another REAL missing child story to help with, google Trenton Duckett from Leesburg, FL. He is a family member that has been gone since August 27, 2006. His mom did something with or to him and then killed herself 5 days later. She never admitted anything or said where he was. Please pray with us that he will be found someday and returned to his home and family.
Iris, have all the proper authorities been notified?
Absolutely, just google his name and see many many pages of news footage and interviews. We love and miss him so much.
The webpage to go to is Helpfindtrenton.com and the whole story and photos are there. Thanks for looking and praying.
Trenton’s Aunt Iris
Thanks for posting his picture. May God bless you and yours.
And Godspeed ! /tony
I got this email today from my aunt, and the kid looked so familiar! I had an e-mail ready to send to this poor mom looking for her son then yahoo tells me the email is not correct. I then decide to google the boys name, and there I find this was all a hoax. I woke up one morning to find my son not in his room….that was the worst feeling I have ever had….we later found him asleep in a different room thank Jesus, but I cannot imagine the feeling that others have went through then they find thier child is really missing. I cannot believe that someone would make jokes out of the agony that real parents feel everyday. Even I saw your news interview and you did not even seem sorry for what you had done, I pray that when you are an adult with children that this terrible thing you said happend to you never happens to them. Maybe when you grow up a little you will realize what you have done and the pain that you have caused.