Help Find Missing Children: Where is Ashley Flores?
Tens of thousands of children are missing and they need your help. Use one of Better World Mortgage's™ socially responsible mortgage brokers and our broker will donate 10% of their gross commissions to the Missing Children's charity of your choice.
For several years now the internet has been buzzing with the story of Ashley Flores, a 13-year-old girl purportedly missing from Philadelphia. Tens of millions of emails bearing her image are circulating between American, Canadian, Australian inboxes, alerting recipients to Ashley's plight and urging everyone to help find Ashley Flores. (You can read the full "Ashley Flores is Missing" email at the bottom of this page.)
Here's the truth: Ashley Flores isn't missing. So, Ashley Flores isn't missing and never was - but tens of thousands of children are missing and they need your help. Use one of Better World Mortgage's™ socially responsible mortgage brokers and our broker will donate 10% to the Missing Children's charity of your choice. You pick the charity, we donate.
 |
|
|
 |
So, was little Ashley Flores really missing? Has she been found or is she still a missing child? Nobody can say exactly who the girl in the photo is - or even if "Ashley Flores" even exists. But millions of people forward the email with hope of helping to find her. Here are some important missing children resources.
Missing Children's Charities & Government Resources
List of Top Missing & Abducted Children's Charities:
List of Top Federal & State Government Missing & Abducted Children's Resources:
- The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC)
- Check Federal Amber Alerts
- Project Safe Childhood
- Federal Missing & Abducted Childrens Resources
The Original Ashley Flores Missing Girl Hoax Email:
"Please look at the picture, read what her mother says, then forward this message on. Maybe if everyone passes this on, someone will see this child. That is how the girl from Stevens Point was found, by circulation of her picture on TV. The internet circulates even overseas, South America, and Canada etc. Thanks. Please pass this to everyone in your address book. We have a Deli manager (Acme Markets) from Philadelphia, Pa who has a 13 year old daughter who has been missing for 2 weeks. Keep the picture moving. With luck on her side she will be found. I am asking you all, begging you to please forward this email on to anyone and everyone you know, PLEASE! My 13 year old girl, Ashley Flores, is missing. She has been missing for now two weeks. It is still not too late. Please help us. If anyone any where knows anything, please contact me at: HelpfindAshleyFlores@yahoo.com. I am including a picture of her. All prayers are appreciated!!"
More on the Ashley Flores missing girl hoax email:
Welcome to the world of internet hoaxes, web scams, false rumors, and urban legends of missing children, missing girls, abducted children and urban myths. The Ashley Flores email isn't the only one; just the latest internet hoax - another in a long line including missing children email hoaxes, run away girls, false amber alerts and more. So, who is Ashley Flores?
While this hoax started out "looking for Ashley Flores of phily", in May 2007 a new version of this hoax claims that Ashley Flores is missing from Mandurah in Western Australia. You may have even seen other names of "missing children" in emails like Penny Brown, Kelsey Brook Jones, Christopher John Mineo Jr. (or, CJ Mineo) Vicki from Australia.
The Ashley Flores email flyer is simply an email prank, spread unwittingly by millions of good Samaritans on the internet. It's easy to see why it's such a successful ruse. Using simple, highly emotive language, a photo of a child (Ashley Flores or not), the email acts as a cry for help begging the email reader to help find the missing child so that you will forward the hoax email to dozens of friends and family members.
Additional Information on Missing Children Email Alerts:
Typically, missing child chains contain a picture and name, but little other useful information. Most offer more encouragement to send it on than details that could actually help authorities find the child. Here are a few clues and tips:
1. E-mails cannot be permanently dated, and few missing child chains include the actual date the child went missing. Even, when they do, this information is often dropped the longer the chain circulates. As a result, a case may appear to be new, when it is actually several years old.
2. E-mails cannot be retracted. Even when a child if found and a case is closed, there is no way to stop the chain letter from circulating. An example of this is the case of Kelsey Brooke Jones, who went missing for two hours in October, 2000, though the e-mail chain letter about her continues to circulate.
3. In the rare case when a chain letter does provide contact information, those individuals are usually overwhelmed with calls offering support or requesting more information, but offering little in the way of leads. This can frustrate search efforts and can become a nuisance after the case is closed.
4. Forwarding these chain letters puts you at risk for False Attribution Syndrome wherein you are mistakenly identified as the letter's author. Consider the case of Monzine Jang, who forwarded the Penny Brown chain letter and got thousands of calls from people who mistakenly believed she was the missing girl's mother.
5. AMBER Alerts have been getting a lot of media attention recently. The "America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response" (AMBER) alert system was launched in the Fall of 2001 in response to the 1996 kidnapping and murder of 9-year-old Amber Hagerman. Under the AMBER plan, when local law enforcement is notified of a missing child case that fits specific criteria, radio and television stations and cable providers are given information to broadcast immediately. When the child is believed to be in immediate danger, time is an enemy and the AMBER plan gives officials one more tool to battle abductors.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC)
The NCMEC is the authority in the United Statee on missing child cases. Every child reported missing to state and local authorities in the U.S. is also reported to NCMEC. They provide an extensive searchable database of missing child posters, which provide useful information on each case, such as:
1. The child's name, age, physical description and photograph;
2. The circumstance of the case (runaway, abduction or family abduction);
3. Information, when appropriate, on the name, age physical description and photograph of the suspected abductor;
4. The exact date the child went missing;
5. The last known location of the child and suspected current location or area;
6. Contact information on how and where to report leads regarding the missing child.
In April, 2003, NCMEC announced its "Poster Partner" program in which you can subscribe to receive an e-mail message every time a missing child is reported in your geographic region. Even better, they'll also notify you when a case is closed, something an e-mail chain letter could never do. Stay up on the latest real cases and the false ones will be easier to spot. Visit http://www.MissingKids.com to learn more.
A chain letter that doesn't provide essential and up-to-date information, or a link to a web site that contains it, is little better than junk mail and may cause more problems than it solves. Though the motivation to forward is strong, please rely only on legitimate, trusted sources of information, such as NCMEC. If a chain doesn't check out, don't forward it "just in case."
Want to make a difference in the Cause of Missing Children?
Please help by using a Socially Responsible Mortgage Broker from Better World Mortgage™ and by forwarding our website to friends, famliy, co-workers and associates. Remember to register your charity with Better World Mortgage™ and share our site with any charity you believe may want to receive tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in charity donations. Thank you for helping make the world a better, safer, healthier place!
Click here: Donate hundreds or thousands of dollars to help find Missing Children!
Questions? Click Here to Contact Us