Boycotting petrol stations now?

After being asked repeatedly in the past months to boycott Nasi Kandar restaurants in Penang, I received several mysterious text messages on my mobile yesterday, all couched along the same language, asking me to boycott certain petrol filling stations on the island:

The first and second ones said: Stop buying petrol at the Shell station next to Greenlane Mcdonald. That station belonged to Ahmad Ismail. Pls distribute this message to all your friends.

The third one said: Ahmad Ismail's petrol station is at Island Glades (Shell). If u use the tunnel from Pg Bridge. The 1 outside Gembira. Stop buying from him. Not beside mac...inform all your Penang/B'worth friends.

I've got nothing to comment on the validity of these "facts" but today, I read reports in The Star and the New Straits Times saying that the real owners of the two Shell stations are seeing red over the text messages. They claimed to have been terribly wronged by the rumours and one has even lodged a police report over it. But why has the second owner, the one outside Island Glades, preferred not to follow suit? It's just a little niggling question. But you can read the full press stories here and here.