Net Hoax Convinces Germany of Fake U.S. Suicide Bombing Attempt

[Paul Ferguson <fergdawgster () gmail com>]

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Via Threat Level.

[snip]

All of Germany was bamboozled Thursday by a bizarre scheme that tricked the
country’s main wire service into reporting an attempted suicide bombing
in a California town — an attack supposedly perpetrated by a non-existent
rap group called the “Berlin Boys.”

The work of German filmmakers peddling a satirical movie called Short Cut
to Hollywood, the elaborate hoax involved at least two faked websites, a
faked Wikipedia entry and California phone numbers for “public safety”
officials that were actually being answered by hoaxsters in Germany using
Skype.

The hoax has transfixed this country. It prompted a 1,000-word tome on the
website of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Germany’s most respected
newspaper, and even a press conference denouncing the incident by the DPA
– the German wire service responsible for first disseminating the news
about the “attack.”

The hoax’s effect was felt thousands of miles away, as a flood of
concerned phone calls from Germany jammed the switchboards at the San
Bernardino County Sheriff’s office, which has jurisdiction over the
supposed bombing site in California.

“This is frustrating and a waste of our resources,” said office
spokesman Arden Wiltshire, who was awakened at 5 a.m. Thursday to try and
sort out the crisis. Wiltshire worries that dispatchers could have missed
important calls to deal with the Germans.

[snip]

More:
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/09/bluewater/

- - ferg

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-- 
"Fergie", a.k.a. Paul Ferguson
 Engineering Architecture for the Internet
 fergdawgster(at)gmail.com
 ferg's tech blog: http://fergdawg.blogspot.com/

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