http://urbanlegends.about.com/b/a/146890.htm
February 15, 2005
Save Toby?
Some folks are up in arms about a site called SaveToby.com, wherein it is claimed that a cute, fluffy bunny named Toby will be cooked and eaten unless his owner receives $50,000 by June 30, 2005. Word on the Net has it that there used to be a disclaimer at the bottom of the Save Toby home page stating it's all just a joke, but as of this writing it is nowhere to be found.
We can still suppose with a reasonable amount of confidence that Toby's in no real danger, however, given that the concept is an obvious rip-off of "Save Bernd," a prank Website where a similar hapless critter has been held hostage for the past six months while its owner supposedly awaits a cumulative ransom of 1,000,000 Euros. The fine print at the bottom of Bernd's home page reads: "It's a joke."
I should note that while the PayPal buttons on Save Toby do (at the moment) lead to a functioning account where "donations" can be made (which I don't recommend), it is NOT the same account displayed in a screenshot on the home page, which lists a purported $14,000+ in moneys collected so far even though PayPal says it is currently unable to receive funds. Caveat emptor!
March 03, 2005
Is SaveToby.com Out of Business?
American University journalism grad student John Marcario informs me that as of Feb. 28 the PayPal link on SaveToby.com — the Website claiming that a cute bunny named Toby will be cooked and eaten unless his owner receives $50,000 in donations by June 30 — returns this error message: This recipient is currently unable to receive money.
It's unclear why the account has been deactivated and whether the shutdown is permanent or temporary, but Marcario, who has been digging for dirt on the unsavory site and its shadowy Webmaster for the past week, finds it unsurprising given the following...
Though the Website is legitimately owned by a real person according to registrar www.godaddy.com, no information on the owner is available because the domain was registered by proxy (see WHOIS).
The company name of Save Toby Inc. is not registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission nor legally traded on the NYSE.
Merchandise associated with SaveToby.com is sold through Café Press, which keeps a portion of all sales from the online store but will not divulge information about the proprietor.
Last week PayPal was looking into the
[email protected] account according to a PayPal customer service representative. This week the link for donating money was temporarily shut down.
There are several possible reasons for an account to be unable to receive funds, PayPal says, including insufficient information about the account holder.
When money was donated into the account prior to its suspension, the name James Mefford appeared as the “business name.”
Repeated emails to
[email protected] have not been responded to.
March 08, 2005
'Save Toby' Gets a Facelift
Last week I reported with the help of John Marcario that SaveToby.com appeared to be out of business, since neither of the PayPal accounts provided for donating money to the cause of saving Toby the rabbit from being cooked and eaten by his owner seemed to be functioning. That has changed. As of this week the site has been redesigned (sporting Ads by Google, no less!) and its PayPal buttons redirected to a working account assigned to the email address
[email protected] — despite Rabbit Heaven founder Sue Brennan's claim in Saturday's edition of the East Valley Tribune that she had personally convinced PayPal to close the Save Toby account.
A screenshot at the bottom of the revamped home page purports to document a total of $17,000+ in donations received so far, but that figure is highly dubious given that the listed PayPal account (assigned to
[email protected]) has been unable to receive funds for several weeks now.
Though questions about the owner's real intentions vis-a-vis Toby's fate remain unanswered because he has taken steps to hide his identity and doesn't answer emails addressed to the site, there are clues to be found in the HTML code of SaveToby.com in the form of these search engine keywords: "save, toby, save toby, rabbit, humor, college, funny, pictures, recipes, videos, jokes."
Update: As of a few days after I posted the above, the
[email protected] PayPal account was no longer capable of receiving funds.