He didn't see it coming!

Tonight there is a very sorry fellow on the plane back to Europe! He surely didn't see it coming... and the price of his mistake is probably hard to swallow. One week ago, I received the following email from a friend:

----- Original Message -----
From: Hidden for Privacy reasons

To: Hidden for Privacy reasons 
Sent: Tuesday, May 19, 2009 4:26 PM
Subject: Message d'alerte Sécurité : SECURITY FLASH

Bonjour à tous,

La présence en ville d’individus incontrôlés et armés est confirmée.
Certaines personnes non identifiées, peuvent tenter de procéder à des contrôles d’identité, en se faisant passer pour des policiers en service. Sous couvert de menaces ou d’intimidation, ils peuvent être amenés à rançonner les personnes isolées.

Il vous est demandé de redoubler de vigilance, et d’éviter les endroits non peuplés et non éclairés.
Vos véhicules doivent rester fermés à clef. Si vous étiez témoin ou victime d’un tel acte, appelez la cellule de veille de la SCAB, qui peut immédiatement envoyer des agents d’intervention sur place, ou appeler la BAC (BRIGADE ANTI CRIMINALITE), et signalez l’endroit où vous vous trouvez (nom du quartier, immeuble, ou endroit public facilement identifiable)
Merci d’insérer ce numéro d’urgence dans vos portables.

Cellule veille /opérations SCAB : xxx xxxx.
En règle générale , les policiers en service la nuit, en ville , portent un uniforme.
Les policiers de la Brigade d’Intervention , sont armés et identifiables, portent des combinaisons noires et écussonnées , ils se déplacent à plusieurs dans des véhicules Toyota bleus foncés, arborant la mention BAC ou Brigade D’Intervention sur les portières.

MERCI DE FAIRE PASSER LE MESSAGE A TOUS VOS PROCHES.

Mr. X

-----------------------------------------------------

Translation:
Hello everyone,

The presence in town of individuals out of control and armed has been confirmed.
Unidentified individuals impersonating police officers might try to verify IDs. Using intimidation tactics or threats, they might try to extract money from isolated individuals.

Please we ask that you are even more careful than usual and that you avoid going to isolated and dark areas. Your vehicules must be locked at all time. If you are witness or victim of such an act, please call SCAB which will immediately dispatch security agents on site, or call BAC (ANTI CRIME BRIGADE), and identify the area where you are located (name of neighborhood, building, or public area easily identifiable). Please add this emergency number to your phone address book.

Cellule veille /opérations SCAB : xxx xx xx.
As a general rule, on duty police officers at night in town wear an uniform. Officers from the emergency unit are armed and can be identified by their black uniforms and badges. They always stay in groups and drive dark blue toyotas with the logo BAC or Intervention Brigade on the car's doors.

Please forward this message to friends and family. Mr. X.
------------------------------------------------

Well, people did as told and this email rumor has spread like wild fire through the entire expat community of Pointe Noire. Guenin Clinic and Total sent their own versions of it. Everyone was talking about it, speculating, enlarging the rumor... it had become the big news on the town. There isn't a newspaper for Mundele here, so people rely a lot of hearsay to find out about what is going on in the City. It would be a lot easier to read the local newspaper, but who would bother? Word of mouth works just as well and obviously its modern version through email too!

Since this is quite common and is being used for everything from announcing the potential close in September of one of the 4 major supermarkets of the City to the death of Bongo one or two days before it is officially announced, I didn't panic and used my common sense. I sent it straight to the only person in Pointe Noire who can, without a doubt, verify if this information is real or not: our invaluable Willy, chief of security at the company.

Here was his answer, soon followed by another one from Total (forwarded to me by a lady whom I know at the French Consulate and with whom I discussed the matter while shopping at the local supermarket...get the picture... spreading like wild fire???)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Willy's response:
Bonjour Magali,

Pls. delete, as this is a whole story, I will tell to Madenga so he can explain you.
Thanks anyway.
Have a nice day.

Willy
----------------------------------------------------------------------

and the response from Total:

----- Réacheminé par XXX/Corp le 20/05/2009 08:55 -----
XXX

19/05/2009 19:47
A: Hidden for Privacy reasons

cc: Objet
RE Tr : Message d'alerte Sécurité : SECURITY FLASH !!!!Lien

A tous,

Après enquête auprès de personnes compétentes et crédibles, cette information gonfle exagérément la portée et l'importance d'un fait divers dont la réalité n'est absolument pas de nature à changer le climat de calme sécuritaire que nous avons la chance de vivre aujourd'hui à Pointe Noire, grâce en particulier à l'action des forces de sécurité congolaises.
L'auteur du mail "d'alerte Sécurité", qui désormais circule dans la communauté expatriée de Pointe Noire en y semant l'inquiétude, est actuellement confronté, par sa faute, à des ennuis avec les autorités locales.
Il est donc recommandé de ne pas colporter ces informations mais au contraire d'en minimiser la portée auprès de celles et ceux qui en auraient eu connaissance.
Bien cordialement.
X

The gist of it is: after further research we have found out that the content of the rumor is not valid. Please discard!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You would think they would have thought of doing this BEFORE sending it to their entire database (there is at least 5000 people working at Total alone!)

In any case, Willy said we had nothing to worry about so I just let it go and tried to stop the damage around me. It didn't stop there for the poor guy who sent the message though. He was asked to board the next plane back home! Better double think about what you email or say to people as words can have serious consequences.

Comments

[Electronics Help]

After read blog topic's related post now I feel my research is almost completed. happy to see that.Thanks to share this brilliant matter.

[Jonatan Lorber]

Bonjour,

En effectuant une recherche sur le net, j'ai pu constater que mon adresse professionnelle Total figurait sur votre site privée.

S'agissant d'informations qui ne regardent que moi, je vous demanderai de bien vouloir retirer mon adresse de l'article ci-dessus - Jonatan LORBER/EXT/CG/EP/Corp@E&P.

Si vous me le permettez, je vous encouragerai même à ne pas diffuser les autres destinataires éventuels des e-mails que vous recevez.


En vous remerciant à l'avance.
Cordialement,

Jonatan Lorber