Organ Theft Rumors (India) – Mudflat Victims (Alaska) – Gay Passenger Kicked Off Flight (1992 legend)

https://www.boomlive.in/fake-news/child-kidnapping-rumours-revived-with-debunked-images-8896

 

BOOM [India], 15 July 2020

 

Child Kidnapping Rumours Revived With Debunked Images Child kidnapping rumours which in the past have led to mob attacks, are being revived on Facebook and WhatsApp.

 

After a brief lull, rumours about child kidnappers disguised as beggars, taking children away and selling their organs have made a comeback on social media. The fake messages are being shared with old unrelated photos with text and audio warning about child kidnappers.

 

One such viral message is in Telugu and claims that about 500 child kidnappers have left from Bihar and are headed towards Jharkhand. […]

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https://www.adn.com/alaska-life/2020/07/13/the-true-history-of-cook-inlets-deadly-mudflats/

 

Anchorage Daily News [Alaska], 14 July 2020

 

The true history of Cook Inlet’s deadly mudflats

 

The deadly mudflats that line Cook Inlet, Turnagain Arm and Knik Arm are the setting for some of the most enduring and gruesome Anchorage urban legends. All the stories begin with an unlucky soul wandering too close to the water and becoming trapped in the quicksand-like mud. From there, victims either drown in the rising tide or are ripped in half by a rope attached to a helicopter.

 

The exact details vary. Sometimes the victim is a tourist who strayed a little too far from the trails. Sometimes the victim is a member of a wedding photoshoot, an attempt for that perfect Alaska background turned tragic. Sometimes the victim is a duck hunter who pleaded to be shot, preferring a quick death over drowning. The longer you live in Anchorage, the more versions you will hear. […]

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“Playboy After Hours,” Playboy, July 1992, p. 14. A mix-up between an airplane passenger named Gay and two gay passengers. “Hell, I’m gay, too – they can’t kick us all off!”

Organ Thieves (India) – Ice Cream Causes Coronavirus (Bangladesh) – Liquor Bottles Left Out for Collection One at a Time

https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/palghar-lynching-dahanu-mla-blames-police-for-failing-to-quell-rumours-assure-villagers-6372917/

Indian Express

21 April 2020

Palghar lynching: Dahanu MLA blames police for failing to quell rumours, assure villagers

Dahanu MLA Vinod Nikole has claimed that the police’s failure to assure tribal communities in remote villages of its presence and quell rumours about organ harvesters and child kidnappers eventually led to the lynching of three men last Thursday. […]

https://www.boomlive.in/india/how-child-kidnapping-rumours-led-to-a-mob-lynching-in-palghar-7769

BOOM [India]

21 April 2020

How Child Kidnapping Rumours Led To A Mob Lynching In Palghar

Fake messages claiming child kidnappers and thieves are on the prowl in various villages in Palghar were viral among local residents, days before a violent mob lynched three people including two Hindu seers. BOOM was able to access these messages which asked residents to stay alert and also led to villages forming neigbourhood watch groups to patrol the streets at night. […]

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https://www.thedailystar.net/business/news/ice-cream-industry-melting-rumour-1895527

The Daily Star [Dhaka, Bangladesh]

22 April 2020

Ice cream industry melting on a rumour

[…] The countrywide shutdown since March 26 has pounded almost all sectors of the economy more or less, but the ice cream, it appears, has been a victim of a cruel joke on top. A rumour was spread on social media quoting the United Nations Children's Fund that ice cream consumption would lead to catching coronavirus. Though the United Nations agency denied it, the damage was already done, with people avoiding ice cream like plague. […]

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https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/save-the-cheap-stuff-for-your-car-s-tank-not-your-own-20200423-p54mgx.html

Sydney Morning Herald [Australia]

23 April 2020

Column 8

[…] In the 1960s the grandmother of Jennifer Dewar of Double Bay lived in a block of flats where all rubbish […] was put outside the door of each flat to be collected daily by a caretaker. "When my grandmother had a drinks party she told us she wouldn’t put all the bottles out at once as it would give a poor impression. Instead she put one out each day for a week, and was unable to understand why her family was amused." […]

Kissing a Letter Leads to Scarlet Fever (1885) – Poisoned Candy Dropped by German Airplanes (WWI)

https://news.mb.com.ph/2019/12/05/pnp-no-abduction-of-students-in-iloilo/

Manilla Bulletin [Philippines]

5 December 2019

PNP: No abduction of students in Iloilo

Iloilo City—[…] “There is no truth to reports about a group of men abducting Iloilo schoolchildren, harvesting the latter’s internal organs, and selling these to clients in Metro Manila,” said Police Lieutenant Colonel Joem Malong, spokesperson of Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6). […] One particular text message even attributed the message to the police station of San Jose, the provincial capital of Antique province. The text purportedly claimed that a white van with plate number VXM-351 and a green van with plate number XMM-507 were used to abduct children and young teenage girls. […]

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https://www.facebook.com/historianofthestrange/photos/a.264469480414258/1150230148504849/?type=3&theater

“A Poisonous Kiss.” Marengo Republican-News, Marengo, Illinois, 6 Nov 1885. “A little girl in Watertown, N.Y., dying of scarlet fever, wished to send a kiss by letter to a former little playmate residing in another part of the State. She kissed the letter and had it sent. The little girl who received the letter very naturally kissed it also, on reading the message. From that kiss she caught the fever and also died.”

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Taras Young, “Hun-identified flying objects,” Fortean Times 384 (Oct. 2019), 56-7. An article on the belief that German airplanes dropped poisoned sweets and booby-trapped toys over Europe during WWI. Reports of items suspected of having been dropped from German planes continued in WWII.