Oregon Public Broadcasting

It looked like an Amber alert.  But it wasn’t, says the man in charge of the nation’s wireless Amber alert system.

Cell phone customers in the Northwest and beyond in recent days have gotten a text message that reads “two little girls were kidnapped around noon.”

David Diggs with the Wireless Foundation says that was the focus of an alert in Montana last Friday.

David Diggs: "That Amber alert was cancelled on Sunday the 13th after the two children were safely recovered.  But like these emails that go around text messages can be forwarded as well.  We’ve had reports from Vermont, Utah, Texas and now Washington State that this text message was widely distributed."

The message also made it to cell phones in Oregon.

Diggs doesn’t think the forwarded message was a hoax. He says it's more of a “good-intentions-gone-wild” situation.

Cell phone subscribers have been able to subscribe to wireless Amber alerts since 2005.