Duped 騙された

今日の昼、友達からこのメールが携帯に届いた：

「友 達から連絡もらったんだけど…↓下の文章に目を通して見てください　・・・・・・・・・・・『SATYやヨーカドーで幼児をトイレに連れこんでイタズラを する事件が相次いでいるとのこと。男女問わず、男の子はオシリにボールペンを入れられ、女の子は３才で子宮を全摘出しなくてはならないほどらしい。しか も、口には粘着テープをされて…。ママと買い物をしていて、子供一人で男子トイレに入ったときや、ママと別室のトイレに入って先に一人で出てきたときに狙 われたらしい。なので、一人でトイレに行かせているなら気を付けてください//」

えっ！！？？やだ〜〜！と思って、さっそく子供がいる友 達皆に転送した。自分の子供がこういう目にあったら、どの親も立ち直れないぐらい大きなショックでしょうね。人の子供がこんなことされたって聞くだけで、 涙がでそうになった私。私は安全に対して神経質（すぎ？？）で有名だから、まず一人で行かせないけど、忙しいとき「ちょっとだけならいいでしょ？」 とだれでも思ったことあるよね。同じ気持ちで、車で寝てしまったとき、ちょっとだけ車において、コンビニとか銀行に入ってこよう、と考えたことあるでしょ うね。毎年のようにパチンコ屋の前で「ちょっとだけ」遊んでいる子供が誘拐される事件がニュースで放送されるのに。毎年のように夏に車の中に残された子供 の脱水死事件が起きるのにね。日本は治安がいいと安心してしまうけど、本当は常に気をつけないと行けないな、と改めて思った。

数分後、３人ぐらいから返事がきた。このメールは最近流行っているイタズラのチェーンメールだって。

そ れこそ、えっ？？？一先ず、たくさんの友達に送ってしまって、迷惑をかけてしまったので、申し訳ないと思ったし、そして騙されたことの悔しいところもあ る。でもでも、こういうイタズラして、何の目的があるのでしょうか？？？信じられない気持ちが何より大きい。別に添付文書がないし、ウイルスを広げようと かじゃなさそうだから、本当に人を怖がらそうと思っているだけのかな。。。子供がいない人に決まっているね。

だいたいどの人でもいいところがある、悪気だけで物事をするひとがいないじゃない？と希望を残したかった私だけど、このメールをもらって、また本当にガックリきたよ。

このメールをもらったら、転送しないでね。

At lunch time today, a friend sent the following e-mail to my mobile:

(translated from Japanese)
"My friend passed this on, but please have a look at the following message:

There have recently been reports of a spate of incidents at Saty and Itoyokado (equivalent of Asda or Walmart), of children being forced into the toilets and abused. Both boys and girls are involved. Examples include boys having ball point pens inserted into their anus, and a 3 year old girl being so badly damaged that she had to have a complete hysterectomy. The children were apparently snatched while going to the toilet by themselves while their mothers were shopping, or while their mother was in a separate cubicle; and silenced by gum tape stuck over their mouths. So please let's all be very careful about letting our children go to the toilet unsupervised!"

My first reaction to this was "Oh my God!!!" , and I immediately forwarded the e-mail on to all my friends with small children. If something like this ever happened to your child, you would never recover from the shock. Just reading about it happening to someone else's kid even had tears in my eyes. Now I am famously paranoid about safety, so I wouldn't ever let M go off to the toilet in a shop without going with her (probably not until she's about 20!!), but who knows we haven't all thought, "Oh it'll just be a minute! It'll be OK just this once.", when you are right in the middle of a huge queue, or the loo's just over there and you're in a hurry... Happened to me today! Same feelings apply when they've finally fallen asleep in the back seat of the car, and you have to pop into the bank for just a second, or just need 1 thing from the 7-11, and you know they'll be a nightmare if you wake them up. We've all had these thoughts. Even though we see news every year of kids being snatched from parking lots while the parents are playing pachinko. Even though we hear of kids dying of dehydration inside locked cars outside stores every year. It's not going to happen to us , right. It's easy to relax and say, Japan is a relatively safe place, but this e-mail reminded me that taking precautions is not being over protective, it's sensible in this day and age.

A few minutes later, 3 of my friends had replied to say that this was a rather infamous hoax chain e-mail that has been doing the rounds recently.

For the second time I thought, "Oh my God!". Obviously I was sorry that I had bothered all my friends and given them the same unpleasant thoughts as I'd had, and I also was a bit annoyed with myself and embarrassed for having allowed myself to be so easily taken in, but by far my dominant emotions were outrage and disbelief. What the hell kind of a person would think up a hoax like this?? What could they possibly have to gain from putting this around if it's false? Obviously someone who has never had kids. (Of course I by no means intend to suggest that people without kids would at all find this acceptable). There was no attachment or anything to suggest that they were trying to spread a virus. So it can only be just for simple amusement. Shame on them.

I've always been someone who tries to cling on to the hope that there is good in most people, and that few people do bad things out of pure badness. There are usually mitigating circumstances or some misunderstanding at the root of any seeming malevolence. However this e-mail has reminded me that there really are some people out there who are just sick. I'm not sure who is worse, the people who would actually do the things described in the hoax, or the people who would make up something like this just for fun.

If you get this mail, don't pass it on.