One of the great things about owning a ton of domains is they all can be used for emails. I use those domains and the possible emails to disguise my identity or seem more important than I am. Other times I have a little fun. One of the domains I own is ChampaignIL.org. The city that I live. I decided to have a little fun with a friend I run with and knew that domain could be the center of the prank. My friend and I went out for a 23 mile run a few weeks ago and he had a little problem in the middle of the run. Lets just say at mile 18 he came out of the bushes with one less glove. Using that info and my domain I sent the following
> From: [email protected]
> Date: Mon, 1 Apr 2013 13:43:49 -0500
> Subject: Re: Health Code Violation 153.09
> To:
>
>
> Dear Mr. Henrichs,
>
> This is an automated response from the City of Champaign reminding you that we have not received a response regarding your recent charge of Health Code 153.09, public urination or defecation on March 9th, 2013 in Hessel Park. Please submit a written response or payment of fine using the information sent to your current address by April 12, 2013. Please refer to original email and contact below.
>
> Sincerely
>
> April Schuster
>
> City of Champaign
> 102 North Neil Street
> Champaign, IL
> 61802
> 217.552.23
>
> Ref. License Number 48 491 Z
>
>
>
> >> Dear Jeremy Henrichs,
> >>
> >> As you many know, the act of public defecation is prohibited in all Champaign city parks.
> >> Please refer to City Ordinance 87652.
> >> Realize that we take these actions quite seriously.
> >> If you feel you have received this in error, please call (217) 552 2673.
> >> Let it be known, that we reserve the right to prosecute this act of civil disobedience.
> >>
> >> Fines will be assessed based on a man hour cost or cleanup or disposal
> >> Or, you may wish to reduce fines through public service work
> >> Other options can be discussed at the above number.
> >> Lastly, civilian photo documentation of the above event can be obtained following satisfactory resolution of this matter.
I had a few friends in on it and they wanted to spell April Fools down the side but their original letter came out looking fake so I reworded it and then put it at the bottom as the original email he missed. I knew he would probably be too nervous to read the whole thing. And I was right.
The number for “April” was actually one of our friends but knew he wouldn’t recognize it because nobody actually knows each others numbers because they’re all stored in our phones. Sure enough, after 2 hours of mulling over the email he called and saw our friends face come up on his phone. He called me to yell at me and let me know that the email looked so official that he thought it was real. He wasn’t worried about the fine but more about it being published in the local paper and embarrassing his family. He really did worry about it for a few hours before getting up the nerve to call.
So yet again my domains give me pleasure. I used that same domain for last year’s prank when I email another person using the email taxes@. I told them their property taxes hadn’t been paid in two years. The only problem was they called their bank before they responded to the email causing them to waste a few hours. Funny but they weren’t laughing quite as much as my friend this year.