Hoax Email To Students Reports The Death Of University President, Leads To Porn Site Instead

Bogey Wells11 years ago

I’ve always imagined that attending school in a state everyone forgets exists, such as Vermont or Montana, would be miserable. While I’m certain I’m correct, spending that much time in the middle of nowhere would probably lead to some insanely creative and hilarious ideas for entertainment. With just the amount of free time I spend sitting around my fraternity house, I can come up with dozens of wonderful ideas to piss off my chapter’s president (and probably Nationals, as well). I can only imagine what four years of isolation could lead to.

The University of Maine at Farmington is located exactly where you’d expect a campus with “Farmington” in its name to be located: the middle of absolutely fucking nowhere. According to Google, the town of Farmington has about 7,500 residents, and approximately 2,500 students attend the university. During the weekend, the Farmington boredom must have reached a new high, because someone took the time to forge an email that reported the university’s president had died. This person sent the email to the entire student body.

The email allegedly included a falsified statement from Associate Provost Robert L. Lively, Jr., who claimed the president died of a stroke and that he was now the interim president. Apparently the email was well written, and students said it matched the style of past emails Lively, Jr., had sent. The email also included a link for students to click, should they want more information on the situation–only, that link led to a porn site, instead.

I suspect a student was behind the hoax. Who outside of Farmington even knows of its existence, much less cares enough to take the time to construct a forged email about the school’s president’s fake death? It just makes sense.

The university began damage control about an hour after the email went out. Officials sent out a statement, which alerted students of the hoax and asked them to avoid clicking the included link. This effectively ended the Great Farmington Hoax of 2014.

While police are still clueless as to who sent the email, they claim no accounts were hacked and that the email was simply forged. This proves, once again, that people are always dumber than you think and that small town boredom always provides us with the best news stories.

[via Morning Sentinel]

Image via StudyMaine.net