Beware of Alarming Text Messages

@julyteen (13252)
Davao, Philippines
May 15, 2008 7:42am CST
i received a text messages yesterday stated that 6.8 magnitude earthquake will hit the Philippines plate at night, many felt nervous about the messages even me. we forward the message to all our friends. Night passed some never sleep to still awake that when the quake happened they are already prepare. No earthquake happened, the news in the morning said that it was a fault alarm. This is the worst, if the true text messages will come and many will say that it is again a fault alarm, what if it really happened could they escape from the tragedy?
1 person likes this
16 responses
@jillmalitz (5131)
• United States
15 May 08
It is really sad that there are so many cruel people in this world who think it is funny to scare people. There are enough rumors on the net as it is. Best thing to do is to stay up with the local news programs instead of text messages which may not be right. Good luck.
2 people like this
@stvasile (7306)
• Romania
15 May 08
First of all, it is commonly known that earthquakes can't be predicted except for a few minutes before striking. I don't give a damn about this kind of alarms. Unless the alarm comes from the authorities it means nothing for me. There was a rumor last year that a nuclear power plant exploded in Chechnya, which is not so far away from my country. People went nuts and the pharmacies sold a lot of Iodine... The Chernobyl explosion affected our country a bit back in 1986 so people are still afraid of something like that happening again.
2 people like this
@academic2 (7000)
• Uganda
16 May 08
Please, take such warnings seriously every time you get it, you can never tell when the real earthquake will strike-sleeping awake is better than dying in your sleep!
1 person likes this
@gemini_rose (16264)
16 May 08
That is a really horrible text message to receive, very frightening, and then to find out that it was just a false alarm is even worse. If they have too many false alarms, people will stop believing them and then when there really is an earthquake they may not pay heed.
1 person likes this
@neildc (17239)
• Lapu-Lapu City, Philippines
16 May 08
I also received the same message that my wife has sent me. I did not reply to my wife's message, not that I ignored it. I examined the contents of the said message before I came out with the decision of not to forward it to my friends. If that really came from the Hawaiian agency, would you think that they will bypass the Philippine agency? Which is PHIVOLCS? And one thing more, the government should do the same to alert the people. We have the media, the internet and others. Also, the regional office of the said Philippine agency told, that it might just be a "text scare"...
1 person likes this
• Pakistan
16 May 08
Thats not good to spread wrong information.it can be dangres in future.
1 person likes this
• Canada
15 May 08
Yeah this happened, sending text massage is good as it is cheap and less time consuming, but sending false message is not good as you says that you people waited for earthquake based on the information send by them.
1 person likes this
@wisedragon (2325)
• Philippines
16 May 08
That text message was a sick joke. I am surprised that so many people fell for it. Keep in mind: Earthquakes cannot be predicted. Not even the most brilliant geologist or the most sophisticated equipment can predict an earthquake. There is no such thing as the U.S. Geological Society. There is only U.S. Geological Survey, which is not in the business of predicting earthquakes. They only record, measure, and study seismic activity. The fact is, earthquakes can happen anytime, anywhere. We must always be prepared.
1 person likes this
• Philippines
16 May 08
I received the same message two or three days back (I can't even recall when). I knew that it was hoax because I knew that to date, nobody has been able to predict earthquakes reliably enough and over short enough time scales to allow the evacuation of threatened areas. Earthquakes undoubtedly do have precursor signs, but they tend to be clearer in hindsight, and it is difficult to sort out signs that may be meaningful from ones that prove not to be. I do have a bad experience with earthquakes as our city was devastated by one in July of 1990.
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• India
16 May 08
these kind of messages are really disgusting and i never will know what is true or what is false ... really i get so angry if someone sends me a fake message like that.
1 person likes this
@dhangski (3194)
• Philippines
15 May 08
Well my friend, I received the same text message yesterday. In my opinion, whether it's true or not, we should always be prepared for everything that will happen. Specially in these times when there are multiple disasters that are happening in the world. It's better that we do prepare. Well, all we have to do is to pray hard for our salvation.
1 person likes this
@sissi320 (328)
• China
16 May 08
People should be serious about earthquake, should not make it a fault alarm. There is a old story called the wolf is coming, which said a boy lied to people the wolf is coming three time, and finally the wolf really comes, but nobody believe him agian. So we should not take this kind of things as a joke, or some others. We Chinese people is suffer monstrous pain now. And I do hope this kind of miserable disaster will not happen to any country again.
1 person likes this
@kaezy_kulet (2465)
• Philippines
16 May 08
i have also received that text msg but i already heard the news of the text message that is spreading about the earthquake..i just hope that those people who are doing this will be bothered by thir conscience i hope their conscience wont let them sleep.
@salonga (27775)
• Philippines
16 May 08
Text Messages of that sort are almost always hoax. Don't believe when you receive test messages that say such things. In the first place, if that is true, you can always hear it from the radio and of course the goverment will be doing the needful. don't get fooled next time. Sometimes they are engineered by the Telecommunication companies for more earnings!
1 person likes this
@gxnfly (1147)
• China
15 May 08
I don't really buy what I received from text messages.You know, an earthquake stroke Sichuan province,so many people are still in nervous about it.Many sayings deliverd by text message,but I just won't deliver it if I'm not sure if it's true.
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@rhane7315 (5649)
• Philippines
15 May 08
i hope that we won't be able to experience that kind of earthquake
1 person likes this