Fax Chronicle

  This is just silly, but a perfect example of a notorious fax. Of course using an Internet Fax service could have avoided this problem.

The branch manager of the Bank of America called police about 10 a.m. after receiving a fax containing images of a lit match and a bomb with a fuse, bank spokesman Ernesto Anguilla said.

This faxed page released by the Ashland Police Dept., shows a fax as it was to appear as a promotion sent by a marketing group Wednesday, May 30, 2007, to a Bank of America branch in Ashland, Mass. A faulty fax arrived at the Bank of America’s Ashland office Tuesday night omitting portions of the fax. A bank employee misinterpreted the message Wednesday as a bomb threat causing authorities to evacuate more than a dozen neighboring businesses.

 But text explaining the fax was an internal bank promotion failed to transmit. The missing text included the phrases “The countdown begins” and “Small business commitment week June 4-8,” according to a copy circulated by police.

Source: Promotional Fax Mistaken for Bomb Threat – washingtonpost.com