Radovan Karadzic site was a hoax

If it's on the Web, it must be true - right?

Well, most of the time, but it seems that a Web site - www.dragandabic.com - that was used by several TV channels and newspapers as a resource on the healing life of the alter-ego adopted by Radovan Karadzic, the Bosnian Serb leader who was arrested late last week, was a fake.

According to the International Herald Tribune, anyone tracing the site would have found that it was registered after Karadzic was arrested ast week on charges of war crimes.

And, oddly enough, says the paper, a returning visitor would notice that it was being updated while he was in jail.

"Still, the site - with a brief biography, conveniently in English and Serbian, along with some favourite Chinese proverbs - became, in the Days after the arrest, a prime source of information for newspapers
and Web sites around the world, including news agencies like Agence France-Presse and Reuters and publications like Le Monde," noted the International Herald Tribune.

It was only on Wednesday of this week that the hoaxer - Tristan Dare, who claims to be a `guerrilla' viral online performance specialist - came forward and admitted the site was his baby.

Dare said that many bloggers had criticised the design of his site, because it was simple and rather bland."

"These people don't get it. It was intended to be that way. It was supposed to be a 'personal site' of an 'old man' living in some drab Post-Communist country not exactly known for a stellar Web design. It
was supposed to be believable," he explained.

According to Dare, traffic to the Web site reached 24,000 hits on day one of its operation on July 22, rising to 180,000 hits on day two. Check out more on this bizarre hoax here...

Tags: humour