'Slavemaster' Warning (2001 Variant)
Netlore Archive: New version of an outdated scare story partially based on fact
Description: Email rumor
Circulating since: March 2001 (this version)
Status: Partly true / Outdated
Email example contributed by Caral Turner, March 12, 2001:
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Subject: Never too safe!! Just in case this is true please be careful!! Don't talk to SLAVEMASTER PLEASE YOU GUYS, READ THIS "VERY CAREFULLY" AND THEN SEND IT OUT TO ALL THE PEOPLE ONLINE THAT YOU KNOW. SOMETHING LIKE THIS IS NOTHING TO TAKE CASUALLY; SOMETHING LIKE THIS YOU "DO" WANT TO PAY ATTENTION TO. THINK OF IT AS "BIG SISTER" SENDING YOU A WARNING DO NOT TALK TO THIS PERSON DO NOT ANSWER ANY OF HIS/HER INSTANT MESSAGES/E-MAIL "NOTHING"!! If a guy by the name of SlaveMaster ----- contacts you do not answer. He has killed 56 women that he has talked to on the Internet. PLEASE SEND OUT TO ALL THE WOMEN ON YOUR BUDDY LIST. ALSO ASK THEM TO PASS THIS ON. He has been on Yahoo and AOL and Excite so far. This is no JOKE.!!! AND PLEASE SEND THIS TO MEN TOO.......JUST IN CASE!!! Send to EVERY ONE YOU KNOW!! LADIES THIS IS SERIOUS. CUT AND PASTE THIS FROM A LONG FORWARD LIST. PLEASE BE CAREFUL AND FORWARD TO WHOEVER I DON`T HAVE ON MY LIST. |
Comments: Less elaborate versions of this warning have been circulating since June 2000. Like other urban legends, it is based on a grain of truth - there is indeed a man named John E. Robinson who was arrested over a year ago as a suspect in the slayings of as many as 11 (not 56) women he met in chat rooms while using the screen name "Slavemaster." But he has been incarcerated ever since under $5 million bail and is not a current threat to anyone.
That people are not only still circulating the warning but rewriting it is indicative of its lasting emotional impact. It functions as a cautionary tale. The moral: Don't consort with strange men you meet in chat rooms or you could end up another victim. Slavemaster has become an Internet bogeyman.
See the original version of this warning from June 2000 for commentary and news links.
