Anna Chandler of Bowling Green was sitting with a friend Tuesday afternoon when her friend got a startling text message.

“Amber Alert … seven year old girl was taken in ky by a man driving a newer silver truck. Licence (sic) reading 72b381. Please forward to everyone,” the message said. Chandler’s friend had gotten it from another friend. Trusting that person, he sent it on to Chandler, who sent it on to about 10 more people whom she knows use text messaging.

It’s the first time Chandler had gotten such a notice by text, but as a Western Kentucky University student she was used to seeing emergency alerts sent out; and since it came through a chain of friends, she assumed it was legitimate and deserved to be passed on.

“I had several friends write me back wanting to know if I knew more,” Chandler said.

Thousands of other people in at least a dozen states from Rhode Island to California and North Dakota to Florida thought the same.

But the message is a hoax, playing on people’s trust.

The message has been circulating by text message and Twitter for several days, but doesn’t describe a real Amber Alert. There are current alerts in Arkansas and Florida, but they don’t match the details in the text message.

“There are none from children in Kentucky,” said Officer Barry Pruitt, spokesman for the Bowling Green Police Department.

Local police deal with many hoaxes and scams, but have never faced a fake Amber Alert before, he said.

“That’s a real concern, because a false alert like this will erode the trust in the system,” Pruitt said.

Chandler said she was astonished that someone would perpetrate a hoax about a missing child. She, too, thought it would make people like herself and her friends less likely to pay attention to real alerts.

Information about real Amber Alerts is easy to find. City police run a front-page ticker of active alerts on its site at www.bgky.org, and nationwide alerts are always available at www.amberalert.gov, Pruitt said.

Hoaxes are almost as easy to spot with a quick Google.com search for specific details such as license numbers or unusual phrases. Such false alerts are also collected, with background and corrections, on myth-busting Web sites such as Snopes.com.