I can't say that I can recommend anything here other than death by hanging. A man has been arrested by British police after a hoaxer posing as a government official e-mailed relatives of people missing since the Asian tsunami, saying their loved ones had been confirmed dead.

The "man" (if we can apply this label to the thing responsible for this) claimed in his hoax to be from the "Foreign Office Bureau" in Thailand. He targetted a number of people who had placed appeals for information about relatives and friends on the Web site of TV station Sky News.

Needless to say, both the British Police, Sky News and us here at Techspot are completely disgusted by this. The British Police have been careful to say that the British government would not notify people of such news via e-mail.

"The British government would not use e-mail to convey news of the death of a loved one. Anyone receiving such an e-mail should treat it with utmost caution."