Greedy opportunists ride on tragedy to make some money online
An online advertisement of the missing MH370 being on sale for US$70 (RM230) has been taken off the Vietnam Craigslist site after it came under flak from netizens for being insensitive.
It is uncertain when it was removed but searches for the MH370 advertisement on the classified advertisement website today have yielded no results.
Clicks on the link found in tweets by Twitter users about the advertisement only lead to a blank page with the message "This posting has been flagged for removal."
Over the last weekend, several news sites reported about the fake advertisement surfacing on Vietnam Craigslist. The Malaysia Airlines plane, now missing for 10 days, was being sold for 1.5 million Dong or US$70.
American tech media site, CNET.com, which carried a short article on it, described it as an insensitive joke.
The writer of the article said: "Just leave it to the Internet to capitalise on a mysterious tragedy for the sake of a scam, a punchline, or both."
On Twitter, some users tweeted "so wrong" and "so messed up". A user named Stanley Roberts tweeted earlier today: "Really? How about this for behaving badly!"
On ubergizmo.com, Edwin Kee wrote: "I am not quite sure about you, but there are moments in time when I do question humanity.
"Case in point of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, where we have seen someone try to take advantage of the situation by selling MH370.com on eBay for $5,000 a pop.
"I suppose this could have been the 'inspiration', if you will, for the crazy idea of placing an ad in Craigslist for selling the Boeing 777-200 MH370 for a mere $70."
Last week, an eBay seller tried to profit from the missing plane tragedy by "flipping" the domain name MH370.com, BBC reported.
The individual wanted to cash in on the tragedy, which has received millions of tweets with the hashtag #PrayforMH370 since March 8, the day the plane disappeared, by registering the web address and then selling it for US$5,000 (RM16,385).
The sales pitch went: "Buy this domain today and sell it later on for thousands of dollars. Dozens of companies, families of victims, will want to buy it from you. Pay little money today and make huge profit tomorrow."
This attracted criticism on Twitter with some users condemning the person trying to make profit from the tragedy.
One Stephen Stephan posted two days ago on Twitter: "Buy MH370.com today and we'll throw in youregoingtohell.com absolutely free."
One Robin Adams tweeted six days ago: "Can't believe someone was selling the domain MH370.com on eBay as the search for the missing flight continues. Disgusting!"
Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared on March 8 while flying en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur. There were 239 passengers and crew members onboard.
Search for the missing plane has now been expanded to two corridors - the northern stretch from northern Thailand to the border of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, and a southern stretch from Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean. – March 17, 2014.
