Anonymous prankster sends out false contact tracing letters on fake hospital letterhead

Ten people received letters on forged Mount Sinai Hospital letterhead, informing them that one of the their sexual partners had tested positive for HIV and that they might be infected as well, according to Saturday's New York Times.

The letters are fake, the hospital cannot find a common link among the 10 hoax victims, and they have no lead about the author of the letters, according to a hospital spokesman. A similar hoax was perpetrated from the Virginia Hospital Center near Washington, DC a few weeks ago, and the hospitals indicate there are enough similarities in the letters in both cases to suspect that the same person wrote all the letters.

The Times reported that the Manhattan district attorney's office is investigating the Mount Sinai case. A spokesman from that office indicated that sending out false letters could lead to aggravated harassment charges.

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