Hoaxes on the rise

From a Canadian Web site:


US campus crime hoaxes on the rise: Media attention and campus alert systems established in the wake of the Virginia Tech massacre may have a hand in a recent jump in false crime reports on US college campuses. In the last six months, there have been at least 9 false crime reports nationwide. For example, shortly after the highly-publicized testing of an emergency alert system at UNC Chapel Hill, a student made a false claim he was attacked by an armed man in a robbery attempt. "For some people, it's attention-seeking. For others, it's revenge. For still others, it's the feeling of power they get by watching a college campus react." North Carolina News & Observer