I have two email addresses.
One is with my name, and I only get email from friends and I get no spam. How? Because I have a second email that I use when placing orders on-line, or filling out forms, etc. That email address is chock full of crap and spam.
My spam address is actually the name of a celebrity…for example, TOMHANKS@wherever.com (not the real address).
I often send large emails to friends and BCC everyone, but address it to TOMHANKS@wherever.com. so I keep a record of what I sent and can be sure attachments arrive, etc. I have used this joke email address for years, have never sent an email from there pretending to be the celebrity and use it only as a dumping grounds for spam.
Here is where the story begins.
I emailed a bunch of people, and included the sister of a friend of mine. She has now taken the fake celebrity email address and written a note saying she got the email address from me and goes on to pester this celebrity for personal information.
I am pissed off for two reasons:
First of all, who gave her the right to simply steal this address, use my name and contact the celebrity (who of course is me, but she doesn’t know that.)
Secondly, imagine if this really were the email address of someone famous…I would look like a total jerk by giving strangers the address.
My questions to you all:
Should I be evil…write her back as the celebrity until the time is right to let her know she has been had?
Should I write her back and tell her what I think of her snagging people off my email lists?
YOU sent that address, she didn’t steal it. She even identified where she recieved the address when she sent e-mail.
IF that had been a valid address that someone wanted private YOU would be the one guilty of wrongdoing.
Finally, if you haven’t identified to her after the first email that she was not in fact reaching the person she thought she was, you are again guilty of much worse than you describe of her.
I’d fuck with her. Write back and forth, with the emails becoming more and more intimate. Eventually fall in love with her. That would be funny.
Many years ago, I would occasionally sign up for AOL for the 30 day trial. This was back in the days when they had content (like SD) that couldn’t be found elsewhere online. I would always use a joke type screen name.
One time I did this was right after The People vs Larry Flynt came out. My email was something like LFlynt100@aol.com. I filled out my profile as if I was the real Larry Flynt. You wouldn’t believe the number of emails and PMs that I got from people thinking that I was the real deal. I never spent time in chat rooms either. That means that all of these guys searched to see if Flyntt had an aol account first and then tried to contact him.
One guy was a childhood neighbor who wanted to say hello. One woman wrote a long note about how Chinese herbs would cure my paralysis. Good times.
Anyway, I would go with writing her back as the celebrity. I mean, someone has to be pretty dense to actually think that a real celeb would use their real name in their email address. You could have some fun with this.
I am totally in the “fuck with her mind” camp. If she’s gullible enough to believe that Famous Person would use FamousPerson@somewhere.com as their email address, then she’s certainly gullible enough to believe anything Famous Person says in the reply email.
If she thinks Famous Person is cute, I suggest Famous Person come out to her. Something along the lines of “I’ve never told anyone this, but I just feel I can trust you… I’m gay.”, ought to do it. Have Famous Person describe, in vivid detail, his latest wet dream.
If she is of a particular religious faith, I suggest Famous Person either be anti-religion, or a religion whose beliefs are totally in conflict with hers (eg if she’s catholic, make FP a voodoo follower).
Have FP admit that he does, in fact, enjoy dressing up in a maid’s outfit and going to peoples’ places to clean their houses. Offer to clean her house.
After a few emails along these lines, if she’s still writing back to FP, have FP introduce her to the latest pyramid scheme. Perhaps having FP endorse the Nigerian email scam would be the go.
Make it more outlandish with every reply! If this chick STILL believes it’s FP… well… what can I say but sit back and enjoy it!
some guys did just this, using the actress who played lil Steffy Tanner on Full House instead of Tom Hanks.
she “fell in love” with some guy from one of her fan boards…
the line that sticks out in my head was when she wrote him an email saying “I feel like the only people in the world that I can talk to are you and Bronson Pinchot”
