Old Internet Hoax Hits Comm Centers

Dispatchers at the Waynesville (NC) police comm center were apparently the first to report at least 100 telephone calls asking about a gang-related killed planned for some Wal-Mart store, which is an Internet hoax at least four years old. Several other agencies across the country have subsequently reported receiving citizen inquiries based on the same e-mails. In the hoax scenario, an unspecified gang is making its members kill someone at an unstated Wal-Mart store as part of a gang initiation. This fake message first appeared in Internet e-mail messages sent as early as 2005, and there has never been any truth to the “facts” quoted in the messages.