Is the Don Bolles MySpace plea a scam? - or, there's no better time than the day after Good Friday to be a skeptic

I received a MySpace bulletin that has also been reproduced in a viral way in other places (although this person says, "Take it for what it's worth").

from NORA KEYES:

Body: This past Wednesday night Don Bolles suffered a bizarre and unfortunate interception with the Newport Police Department. He was stopped for a broken tail light. We believe his unconventional looks and old army green van made him the victim of police profiling in this very affluent, quiet town. They searched his van. The only thing they found was a bottle of Dr Bronner’s soap. If you are a good friend of Don’s, you know this is the only cleaning agent he uses for every thing from tooth paste to laundry detergent. The police ran a drug field test on the soap and it came up positive. Dr. Bronner’s is made with hemp seed oil. Maybe this is the reason behind the arresting officer’s error. I spoke with someone who is familiar with forensic drug tests. They said the field test is not absolutely accurate. There are two other drug tests that need to be conducted on the soap. Also, the drug they are ascertaining that Don is in possession of is unusable in a soap base. He is being charged with a felony. His bail is $25,000. He could get up to 20 years in prison. This is very serious. Through a bail bonds company it is 2,500 dollars. Currently we have roughly 1,000 dollars. He is now being held at the Orange County jail. This is not a safe place for Don. With all my heart I do believe Don is innocent. I talked to the Police yesterday at the holding facility. Their attitude was harsh. This is truly a horrible and sad incident. I spoke with Don a number of times. He is in utter disbelief that this is happening to him. We are asking friends if they could make a contribution of 10-20 dollars or more to help get him out of jail as soon as possible so he can seek legal assistance. Please make contributions to the paypal account below. Also, if anyone knows of a lawyer that can donate their services, please contact me as soon as possible. I spoke with criminal lawyers yesterday and their fees are unbelievably high. Please repost this on your bulletin if your network of friends can help. - Nora

After reading this, alarms started going off in my head.

• The reference to the "Newport Police Department" is interesting, inasmuch as there is no city named "Newport" in Orange County, California. (Locals will know what I'm talking about.)


• The vague "Wednesday night" reference sounds kind of spammy to me.


• Why would hemp appear as a date rape drug? It sounds like the kind of nonsensical thing designed to attract the counterculture person with $20 to spare.


• Oh yeah, the money. Obviously, the request for money seemed kind of odd. Just a Yahoo email address. Why not a reference to Nora Keyes' own website? (We'll return to Keyes' website in a moment.)

So I went and checked Nora Keyes' MySpace. Nary a mention of any fundraising drive.

Then I went and checked a MySpace account that claims to belong to Don Bolles. Check the last login date:



Now of course one can claim that all of Bolles' fans suddenly responded with their twenty dollar bills and sprung Bolles from jail. So we'd expect a "thank you" from Bolles on his website, wouldn't we?

Sorry, this one smells funny. Or perhaps it's legit, but the organizers have been smoking too much Dr. Bronner's Soap to assemble a coherent position.

[FORGOT TO LINK TO NORA KEYES' OWN WEBSITE, WHICH IS ALSO SILENT ON THE ISSUE.]

[UPDATE - JIMMY MICHAEL GIORSETTI WAS ARRESTED ON APRIL 4. DETAILS HERE.]

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