Last Updated on: 15th July 2019, 04:15 pm
I’m ok with people telling Japan jokes. In fact if I had any I’d post the good ones here. But there’s a line where funny becomes not funny, and for me that line most definitely comes somewhere before the point ofusing the Google people finder site to hoax people into thinking that their loved ones are dead.
Sydney-based Russell told of his distress Tuesday after finding a message on the Google site Saturday afternoon saying the 21-year-old woman had been confirmed dead at a hospital in the devastated coastal town of Ofunato, where she had been teaching English for nine months.
It cited the name and telephone number of a real hospital, but gave a fake doctor’s name. Her father said frantic friends in Japan were able to telephone the hospital and confirm the deception.
“There are some evil people out there,” said Russell, a 48-year-old publisher. “Her employer told me other people had suffered the same hoax as well.”
