Death by Spam

CalMeacham · January 28, 2011, 9:10pm

Spam text kills a suicide bomber, saves hundreds

A spam message wishing a Russian woman happy new year may very well have killed her, and saved hundreds of intended targets, according to an account by The Telegraph’s Moscow correspondent, Andrew Osborn.

The woman, dubbed “The Black Widow,” who authorities suspect was part of the same militant group that killed 35 people at Moscow’s Domodedovo airport on Monday, was at a house preparing for the attack, which would have occurred on New Year’s Eve at Red Square. Instead, the woman’s mobile phone, which served as the device’s detonator, was activated hours early by a spam message wishing her a happy new year. She was killed, while a man and woman also in the house and suspected of being accomplices, escaped.

Russian security forces told The Telegraph that phones are usually kept off until the last minute for detonation, but in this case, “the terrorists were careless.”

http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/01/28/5942012-spam-text-kills-a-suicide-bomber-saves-hundreds

silenus · January 28, 2011, 10:18pm

Link.

I laughed.

Happy New Year, bitch.

CalMeacham · January 28, 2011, 10:52pm

Scooped by an hour:

Oakminster · January 28, 2011, 10:53pm

The first Darwin Award of 2011?

twickster · January 28, 2011, 11:40pm

Merged duplicate threads.

MEBuckner · January 29, 2011, 12:28am

Dear Terroirist Suicide Bomber:

I am writing to you, on behalf of Chairman Brother Usama bin-Laden. I have a bomb, consisting of Ten Kilograms (10 KG) of Semtex, high explosive plastic explosive. I urgently need your Assistance in this matter…

Count_Blucher · January 29, 2011, 2:33am

“Can you hear me now…? Good.”

Waxwinged · January 29, 2011, 3:11am

Now that’s bloody hilarious.

longPath · January 29, 2011, 12:30pm

I assumed a suicide bomber would not require a remotely detonated device. Seems like overkill (heh)

It’s good she got taken out as she probably would have gone on to make more such devices.

Ale · January 29, 2011, 2:06pm

I’ve wondered about this myself a few times, that is, a bomb going off prematurely because of an incoming call or SMS.

It’s quite “funny” in this instance, getting blown to bits by spam, what would had been deliciously ironic would had been setting the bomb off with a call from some terrorist associate wanting to know if she had carried out the bombing yet.

Cort · January 30, 2011, 8:11pm

Hah! Hope you’re enjoying 2011 in hell, you cunt.

Johnny_L.A · January 30, 2011, 8:19pm

It would be funny if she had been dressed as an anthropomorphic rhinoceros. Then the thread title could have been…

Death To Smoochy By Spam

Guinastasia · January 30, 2011, 8:41pm

Well, that stuff does have a lot of salt…

EvilTOJ · January 31, 2011, 8:16am

So if this happened on New Year’s, why are we hearing about it now?