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R/£ False e-mail warns of HIV blood in sauces
November 24, 2008 Edition 2
By LAVERN DE VRIES
Crime Writer
The SA Police Service has slammed as a hoax an e-mail that says police are calling on people to boycott a fast food restaurant because they are using sauces infected with contaminated blood.
The e-mail, titled Important Alert, contains the warning in an attachment and has an official South African Police Service stamp on it.
Several police officers are also on the recipient list.
The e-mail said, in part, that schools had received letters saying that the food outlet had warned people not to use tomato sauce or any sauce from any outlet that was not in sealed packets.
"One of the food outlets has caught a man filling the sauce with HIV-positive blood," the e-mail said.
National police spokesman Captain Dennis Adrio said police were aware of the e-mail and rejected its content as false.
"The stamp on the e-mail does not mean that we issued it. Stamps can easily be scanned in and obtained from affidavits," he said.
Adrio said police would only communicate authentic warnings via media statements and on the official police website - www.saps.org.za
"We urge people not to forward the hoax mails because spammers send it to see how many people they can send into a false panic and to see how widely the e-mail circulates."
Adrio reiterated that people should ignore the warning.
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