QUESTION: I never was able to see the photos of people arrested for drunken driving on the Honolulu Police Department Web site. Whenever I went to the link provided by news stories, the HPD “;Oahu Impaired Drivers”; page was blank. In fact, everyone I've asked about the pictures was unable to access them, so it couldn't have been just me. What happened? And why are the pictures up (if in fact they ever were up) for only 24 hours?

ANSWER: The photos of the “;impaired drivers”; were posted on the Web site, as scheduled, at 10 a.m. Wednesday, said HPD spokesman Maj. Clayton Kau.

Shortly after 10 a.m., HPD began receiving calls that people could not access the page.

“;Per our technology personnel, people could only access the page if their computers had Microsoft Internet Explorer,”; Kau said.

But even some people with Internet Explorer had difficulty accessing the page, he acknowledged.

“;We are currently working on the problem and hope to have it corrected by (tomorrow's) posting,”; Kau told Kokua Line.

As to why the photos are posted only for 24 hours (10 a.m. Wednesday to 10 a.m. Thursday), Kau noted this effort to curb drunken driving is only a six-month pilot project.

“;It was decided that the photographs would be posted for only 24 hours during the program,”; he said.

Beware Puppy Scam

The state Department of Agriculture passed on a query it received from someone looking to adopt a puppy from Nigeria to help alert other people about the scam:

QUESTION: I am in the process of talking with someone in Nigeria about adopting a puppy. I have provided the owner of the puppy with the necessary information regarding quarantine laws, five-day checklist, etc. obtained from the Department of Agriculture's Web site. The owner assured me that it should not be a problem with getting the puppy since he has already been through a quarantine. Is this true? I would appreciate any/all pertinent information as soon as possible, since I am basing this response on whether I should proceed with purchasing the puppy. Do you have any rules and/or exceptions for puppies that have already been quarantined in other states and/or countries?

ANSWER: The person at least wisely checked with the Department of Agriculture, although the fact that the seller was in Nigeria should have been a red flag.

Janelle Saneishi, spokeswoman for the department, immediately alerted the woman that this was a scam being run by people in Cameroon and not to send any money.

In fact, there are numerous references on the Internet to the “;Nigerian puppy scam,”; which has been around at least since 2006, among them hsblinks.com/1e9 and hsblinks.com/1ea.

The scam usually entices people with ads posted on Craigslist or newspapers offering a puppy for free.

They'll have photos of cute pups—usually taken from some other source—and a story about how the owners have been transferred to Cameroon or Nigeria or some other foreign country for missionary or Peace Corps work, no longer can keep their pet and are looking for someone to give it a good home.

They ask that money be sent via Western Union (another red flag) to a shipper that might or might not exist.