Sunday, July 23, 2006
Fake alibi
I saw this in New Scientist, and thought it was funny, especially the part about the beer-stained t-shirt ...
"Pretend World Cup trip
JUST how World Cup obsessed are your friends and workmates? What would it be worth to prove to them that, yes, you were there when your national team scored that crucial goal?
Feedback has just received an email from www.fakealibi.com plugging an offer to provide fake documentation of a World Cup trip. For just £99.99 you get ticket stubs, flight and coach details, a "virtual phone number" to field calls and a beer-stained shirt.
Naive as we are, our first thought on receiving this was that fakealibi.com had reversed the normal flow of alibi. That, we assumed, would be to prove to your boss, who has unaccountably failed to understand the life-or-death nature of this sporting fixture, that you were, in fact, dutifully attending an ISO 9000 Quality Assurance Review Day in Swindon, UK - not painting your face in Dortmund, Germany.
But then we lifted our eyes from the bare text and noticed the slightly disturbing signature graphic on the site. It depicts a blonde person, oscillating sinusoidally on what appears to be a hotel bed. That, the site seems to imply, could be the reason why a person might want to pretend they were at the World Cup."
"Pretend World Cup trip
JUST how World Cup obsessed are your friends and workmates? What would it be worth to prove to them that, yes, you were there when your national team scored that crucial goal?
Feedback has just received an email from www.fakealibi.com plugging an offer to provide fake documentation of a World Cup trip. For just £99.99 you get ticket stubs, flight and coach details, a "virtual phone number" to field calls and a beer-stained shirt.
Naive as we are, our first thought on receiving this was that fakealibi.com had reversed the normal flow of alibi. That, we assumed, would be to prove to your boss, who has unaccountably failed to understand the life-or-death nature of this sporting fixture, that you were, in fact, dutifully attending an ISO 9000 Quality Assurance Review Day in Swindon, UK - not painting your face in Dortmund, Germany.
But then we lifted our eyes from the bare text and noticed the slightly disturbing signature graphic on the site. It depicts a blonde person, oscillating sinusoidally on what appears to be a hotel bed. That, the site seems to imply, could be the reason why a person might want to pretend they were at the World Cup."
