Urban Myth 101

Melissa Webster

by Ronni Mott
September 3, 2008

Last week, the Jackson Free Press received several e-mails proclaiming “Jackson Crime Alert” in the subject line. Obviously having been forwarded through dozens, maybe hundreds of prior e-mail addresses, the story the e-mails tell is about a man named Hong Kong, who peddles his hip-hop CDs in neighborhood parking lots and gas stations in Jackson. Hong Kong and his cohort supposedly followed “Jennifer and I” from “the Brookshire’s gas station off Beasley and Adkins” in their “big royal blue car (sparkly) with tinted windows.”

The writer had been warned about buying CDs in another e-mail. “This CD was laced with some kind of drug and once you touched it after a few minutes it would then make you pass out,” she writes.

In a dramatic post-script, the writer said her mother had called as she was writing the e-mail with a tale of a co-worker’s son who had “just been kidnapped, beaten, and robbed at gun point,” at the same gas station and that the two suspects kidnapped, beat and raped two other people.

Jackson police have no record of the incidents, which allegedly took place over the July 4 weekend, although the writer says she “called the police and they told me they would send out a patrol car and check into it.” One can safely assume that a multiple kidnapping, rape, beating and robbery would have hit the news, but the JFP could find no news story about the incident, nor has any news outlet reported on drug-laced CDs.

The e-mail is signed by a supposed employee of Trustmark National Bank. An operator at Trustmark Bank in Jackson was unable to locate the employee’s name in the company directory. Facebook lists the person on Jackson’s network, although there is no phone listing for the person in Mississippi that the JFP could locate.

At the very bottom of the e-mail a woman’s name and contact information appeared: Regina Armstrong. Reached by telephone, Armstrong initially did not remember the e-mail, but after seeing it, she recalled receiving and forwarding it.

“I remember this e-mail coming to me,” Armstrong said. “There are a lot of people out there selling CDs,” she added. “I’ve never heard of anyone being attacked by anyone selling CDs.”

The first person who appeared in the long list of senders was Jerry Beason of Philadelphia Miss., who also remembered receiving and forwarding the e-mail, although she had no first-hand knowledge of the story, and she would have deleted all of the previous e-mail addresses before she forwarded it, she said. If it concerns a potentially dangerous situation, she admits she would have forwarded it to people as a precaution. It was clear that Beason was not the originator of the e-mail.

Is it a hoax? The evidence certainly points in that direction.

The take-away points are these: First, don’t believe everything you read, especially not in an e-mail that’s been forwarded and re-forwarded through dozens of addresses.

Second, don’t become part of a fear-mongering problem by repeating information you can’t verify.

Filed under “For What It’s Worth,” Armstrong forwarded another e-mail she recently received. “Our company insurance agent just called me and said the police dept just called all precinct captains into a meeting and told them to start writing tickets to any motorist traveling 1 mph or more over the speed limit because the city is broke. This includes running stop signs, redlights, [sic] seatbelt violations, etc, etc.

“Pass the word folks,” it reads.

That wasn’t true, either.

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