A seemingly innocent e-mail pleading for information about a lost teenager called Ashley Flores turned out to be a nightmare for the woman who was identified as the child’s heartbroken mother at the end of the message.
She said she took the problem to her company’s IT department, which said it was a hoax originating in Philadelphia and has been circulating for the past five years. According to the website www.snopes.com, this e-mail was initially a child’s prank. Ashley Flores was never lost.
