Bonsai Kitten

Here we go again! bonsai Kittens are back. After first arriving on the internet scene, (or scheme), in 2001, it seems as if the creators of bonsai kittens have returned. Or have they? They were never here in the first place. No one sells them, and never has. See here. It is a hoax. What I wonder is why? Sure it will get a few laughs and sure it will upset thousands of animal lovers, but is that it? It also contributes to clogging up the internet with junk, but what else? I have a hunch its part of a scheme to gather information about unsuspecting people, and then sell or otherwise use that information for profit.
The email I received had a "signature" at the bottom that led me to an "online business opportunities" site. by the same person. That site in turn refers to a "tiny url.com" site that I didn't go to, because I thought there was something familiar about it, and it wasn't good.
Further, there is a "petition" to sign, that I'm sure all good people will rush to and sign to stop this "activity" of bonsai cats. That petition REQUIRES an email address, so here at least I see the potential. The owner of the petition gathers thousands of "live" email addresses of animal lovers who may also be kind, sincere, gullible, or naive. All perfect people to send other "come on" emails to. I wish I had that list. I could be rich. Just imagine the potential of an email list with the names of several thousand animal lover and others, that someone could send a request for say donations to help save animals of one type or another. Small donations that don't hurt the giver financially, but could reap who knows what for the receiving end. What if your donation was made by credit card? Now he may have your credit card number. Identity theft is now possible; or sell your credit card number to others maybe. On and on it goes.

Or is it just "junk" mail? Spam? There is another site dealing with this here. Whatever it is, and you now have several possibilities, just be careful. Trust no one. Even your friends may innocently send you stuff like this. With the prevalence of scams trying to get information about you today, you cannot be TOO careful