Minute44 - Dan Schonhaar

This was brought to my attention last night and I just had to tell you all about it… It could possibly be the greatest prank ever pulled. Or, at least the best executed.

Basically, it took place when we were at school, I’d say about 1997… Mr. Reed was one of the first people we knew to have Internet access at home so one day me and Gaz went round to use the Internet for it’s proper purpose, surfing porn. I had this bogus stupid fake software that generated “Credit card numbers” which was obviously bollocks, but reedy didn’t know this… anyway… the numbers, of course, didn’t work and we didn’t gain access to any porn that required payment, just the free stuff.

So a few days go by and we happened to mention what we looked at to some of our mates at school, including Jonathan Shea (a super-genius). The prank then took shape. Shea created an email account at school and sent a message to Reedy to this effect:

Dear Mr. Reed,

It ahs come to our attention that you have been using stolen credit card numbers to attempt access to a number of premium rate adult websites over the last few days. We have traced your IP address and we have confirmed that it is indeed yourself that is making these attempts from your home address of **********.

This is a very serious charge and you and your parents/guardians will be receiving a notice of prosecution for you through the post in the next few days. The penalty for such an offence is typically a custodial sentence of 3-7 years and an unlimited fine.

We advise you to seek council immediately in lieu of your court date. If you cannot afford your own council then please make us aware of this by filling in the appropriate part of the notice of intended prosecution you will receive in the post.

Regards,

Joe Bloggs - HM Fraud Squad

Obviously, to adult eyes that letter is bollocks but to a 14 year old kid it is the stuff of nightmares. Not only was the e-mail very officially worded, thanks to Shea, it had logos on it from the fraud squad as well as major credit card companies. Reedy bought it hook, line and sinker. Of course, he came and told me and Gaz immediately and the hardest part of the prank was not letting him know that we knew it was a trick. But, thanks to good acting on our part and a little bit of naivety on Reedy’s part we nailed it! I’ve never seen someone with a look of more dread in his eyes both of getting pinched but also the shame of having his parents know he was doing a little one-handed surfing.

Reedy spent the next week sweating and looking over his shoulder. It was hilarious! We had to tell him it was a joke the day he came up to us and said he was going to tell his parents that evening. Obviously me and Gaz could have got it in the neck for looking at porn in the first place so we told him… but we didn’t just tell him outright… oh no. That would have been boring. We did it over another very official e-mail….

Now, this is what I love about Reedy, he took it sooo well. He could have gone ape shit and beat the living piss out of all of us but no.. he just let out a huge sigh if relief and smiled like the Cheshire cat for the next few hours. It was absolutely brilliant I can only hope that I’m privy to another prank of it’s calibre one day in the future!

Top class stuff!