Man fakes earthquake warning online

23 Jun 2008

A 19-year-old Chinese man is in police custody after allegedly hacking into a provincial seismological bureau's Web site and issuing a false earthquake warning.

Just weeks after a major earthquake hit China's Sichuan province, the teenager altered the Web site of the Guangxi Seismological Bureau to display a fake warning saying that southwestern China was about to be hit by an earthquake measuring 9.0 on the Richter scale.

The Web site of state-owned China Central Television said the suspect, identified only by the surname Chen, was arrested in Taicang on June 4 and is being held in the Guangxi provincial capital of Nanning. The charges were not disclosed. The state media report said that Chen confessed that he had altered the Web site to demonstrate his technical skills.

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