【明報專訊】美國一名男子去年因病猝逝，事後5個月，多名親友卻離奇收到他「發出」的電郵，問候各人近况，連死後發生的事情似乎亦瞭如指掌。其家人聲稱並不知道他的電郵密碼，亦不相信其電郵帳號遭黑客入侵，令事件更形詭秘。
疑發出「黃泉電郵」的美國賓夕法尼亞男子弗勒澤（Jack Froese）去年6月因心律失調猝死，終年32歲。
其中一名收到電郵的，是其多年好友哈特（Tim Hart），他稱去年11月收到弗勒澤的電郵，主旨是「我正看着你」，信中說：「你聽到嗎？我正在你家裏。去清理你他媽的閣樓！」哈特稱當時極震驚，因為 弗勒澤死前不久曾與哈特兩個人到過閣樓，當時弗勒澤嘲笑那裏亂七八糟又滿是塵埃。事後哈特曾回覆電郵，但沒有回音。
弗勒澤的表弟亦在去年11月收到弗勒澤 的電郵，問候其剛在一周前弄傷的足踝，又請他轉告另一朋友因電郵失靈，因此無法與其聯絡。
電郵的來源至今仍是個謎，不過親友都不打算找出真相，視電郵為來自弗勒澤的禮物。
You've got mail - from beyond the grave
When Tim Hart received an email from a dead man, the only thing he could think of doing was to send a reply. He hasn’t heard anything back, writes BRIAN BOYD
A FEW MONTHS AGO, Tim Hart received an email from his best friend, Jack Froese. The two, both from Pennsylvania in the US, had been having a running mock argument about the dirt and mess that had accumulated in Hart’s attic. Froese’s email from last November to his friend read: “Did you hear me? I’m at your home. Clean your f***ing attic!!”.
Upon receipt of the email, Hart suddenly felt very sick and turned ghost white. Froese had died suddenly five months before the email was sent.
“I was sitting on my couch and going through emails on my phone and it popped up as sender Jack Froese,” Hart told BBC News. “I read it – it was very quick and short but to a point that only Jack and I could relate to”.
When he calmed down enough after receiving the email from a dead friend, the only thing Hart could think of doing was to send a reply. He still hasn’t heard anything back.
Two other friends and Froese’s cousin, Jimmy McGraw, also reported receiving emails from beyond the grave. With emotions ranging from anger and shock to an eerie feeling that somehow their friend was still watching them, they got in touch with Froese’s family to tell them what had happened.
Froese’s family haven’t received any emails – they were sent only to the dead man’s two close friends and his cousin. His mother, Patty, said she realised the emails “made some people happy, but they upset some people”.
Froese was just 32 when he died suddenly from heart arrhythmia. His friends could only conclude that someone had hacked into Froese’s email account to send the messages – as some sort of bizarre prank. But whoever did this – or simply just knew the password that Froese used – would have to have known some very personal details that were referred to in the mystery emails — and Froese’s friends say this is impossible.
It is remarkably easy to send emails when you’re dead. There’s a service called Dead Man’s Switch (deadmansswitch.net) which allows you to send a series of staggered messages for months after your death.
You write them up beforehand and then a programme allows your email account to send them out at intervals of one week/one month/three months, etc.
However, if you don’t tell people that you have registered with the site and that they will be receiving emails from you after your death, the effect can be a little disconcerting.
As the Dead Man’s Switch page explains to potential users: “Bad things happen. Sometimes they happen to you. If something does happen, you might wish there was something you had told the people around you . . .
“You write a few emails and choose the recipients. These emails are stored securely, so no one except the intended recipient will ever read them.”
The site gets in touch with users every so often “to make sure you are fine”. If they don’t receive a reply from you after 60 days, they start sending out your “dead” emails at the time intervals you previously specified.
Case closed then it seems for the mysterious emails from beyond the grave incident in Pennsylvania. Froese could have been a user of the Dead Man’s Switch or another similar site, but neglected to tell his best friends that they would be receiving emails from him after his death.
But in the spirit of the great TV detective Lieutenant Columbo — there’s just one more thing. Froese’s cousin, Jimmy McGraw, says one of the emails he received read: “Hey Jim, how ya doing? I knew you were gonna break your ankle, tried to warn you. Gotta be careful.”
But McGraw broke his ankle five months after the death of his cousin.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2012/0317/1224313455080.html
Grace
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