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I WAS NOT ATTACKED BY MAT REMPIT

I think I have to make this clear to all my friends and visitors to my blog.

I AM FINE and WAS NOT ATTACKED BY MAT REMPIT.

The story started in early April when a colleague of mine has received an e-mail where there is a story of a person being attacked by a group of Mat Rempit at Arena Green Condo at Bukit Jalil. As a result of the attack, I had slash wounds on my hand and leg and received 11 stitches on my knee cap where I was temporary immobilize.

At the bottom of the mail it was signed by:

Chan Kok Keun (my name was spelled wrongly)
Manager - Testing, UTG
Scope International(M) Sdn.Bhd
(With my office phone number here)

My colleague has seen me in office in perfect health and was walking about happily and was surprised by the mail. He wanted to confirm whether the mail was true.

I was shocked, surprised and angry when the mail was sent to me for my viewing. In my mind, who would do such a thing to me in spreading such a mail where it was signed by me.

I analyzed the mail and my conclusion was:

• Someone took an April Fool's template of the same story with the sign-off using my name, designation, company name and office phone number.
• Changed the date of the incident.
• Created an email account which I guessed is Hotmail. There was a caption at the end of the mail to indicate that the mail originated from Hotmail.
• Sent out the mail to people who are working in Scope International.

The mail was subsequently forwarded by various staff at Scope at Technology Park where Arena Green Condo is located just outside the main entrance and many staff are staying there. The main was later forwarded to staff at Menara Standard Chartered and subsequently the whole of Malaysia and the world.

When I got the mail, I quickly made a call to the person who last forwarded the email to check where the source of the mail was from. By that time, the mail has been forwarded so many times, that I am unable to trace back to source. I quickly reminded the person who has forwarded the mail that the mail was a hoax and the incident did not happen. At the same time, I requested that the sender remind the recipients of mail that they have forwarded to of the same.

There were phone calls made to my office phone to:

• Offer their sympathy of my "predicament"/"tragedy"
• Verify whether the story was true
• NST reporter who wanted to do a story on Mat Rempit and wanted more details of the "incident"
• Blogger who also wanted to put up the story.

All of the above happened in the month of April.

To inform my friends, I posted the warning and reminder in Facebook that the mail was a hoax and requested them not to forward the mail. Since, I have been active in Facebook, only my friends in Facebook managed to read the post.

On Tuesday (9 June), my friend Pauline Goh from Public Bank called me while I was driving out for my lunch to ask me whether I am fine. I laughed loudly and I knew that she would have read the hoax mail only then. Later on, I got a call from Darshini and after that I got a call from Ong Ming Teck who has just landed at the airport from Phnom Penh. He also asked how I am and to verify the story.

After getting the calls, I started to think to how damage has been done by that hoax mail. I then Googled a search "Mat Rempit Chan Kok Keun" and found 4 blogs which ran the "story".



Today, I thought that it would be good to write this information down in my blog to inform all my friends that the "attck" never happen, and that I am in good shape and health.

Here's a photo taken of me end of May during my trip to Kellie's Castle to prove that I am fine: