prankster - The Art of the Prank

September 1, 2013December 15, 2023

Iranian Prank Calls the NSA

We interviewed the guy who prank-called the NSA
by Brian Fung
WashingtonPost.com
September 1, 2013

The NSA is in dire need of customer service training “” at least in the case of Bahram Sadeghi, a Dutch-Iranian filmmaker who decided to call the surveillance agency for “help” after one of his e-mails was accidentally deleted. In a three-minute exchange with NSA spokespeople, Sadeghi manages to confound one with his request (you can almost hear the relief in her voice when Sadeghi asks to speak to someone else) and gets a curt reply from another.

How did Sadeghi pull off his trick? In an interview Sunday, the prankster revealed how his plan came together and where it went off the rails. The following transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

Read the rest of the story here.

via BoingBoing

October 10, 2012December 15, 2023

Pranksters Crash Investment Banking Awards

From Jon T:

Top Firm Gets Unwanted Trophy At Prestigious Banking Awards
hereisthecity.com
October 10. 2012

A group of pranksters gatecrashed an investment banking event at a Mayfair hotel to present Barclays with an award for ‘Innovation in Interest Rate Manipulation’. And the trophy? It was a bottle of Bollinger, of course!

The Daily Telegraph reports that footage has emerged of the activists striking at the Investment Banking Awards at the Sheraton Hotel in Mayfair, which they describe as the ‘Oscars of the financial world’.

The pranksters say:

‘One of 2012’s most profitable scams was the bankers’ ‘innovative’ approach to a key interest rate called LIBOR. Virtually every bank at the event was involved in illegally colluding to rig LIBOR, ensuring that they would always be the winners in the multi-million pound bets they were making on the markets.

When we noticed that this money-spinner had been overlooked in the ceremony, we decided to show up and make sure the LIBOR-riggers got the recognition they deserve’.

image: geishaboy500

July 16, 2012December 15, 2023

How to Wig Out Friends & Family

Update from Joshua Darrah, July 16, 2012: The video below is a replacement for the original :30 video posted January 19, 2012. It’s now 6:24.

Submitted by Joshua Darrah January 19, 2012: Here’s a prank I pulled on my friends and family recently:

STEP 1: Secretly shave off your two year long hair.
STEP 2: Glue it into a wig.
STEP 3: pull it off to freak your friends. 40 of them.

I had been growing my hair for a couple of years, and wanted to go back to a shaved head, but I wanted to make it a surprise to my brother that i was suddenly shaving my head. I have NO IDEA where the idea came to me from, but i wondered if I would be able to cut off my long hair, keep it, then hot glue it into a wig. I would then wear that wig of my own hair (yes this is slightly serial killerish i know!) and while hanging with my brother, suddenly pull off my ‘hair’ and be shaved headed in a split second.

I told him I was filming a video project, that way I could film his reaction. And man it went down a treat! I then realised I could wear my wig to every visit with friends and family over the coming 2 months, I eventually pranked over 40 of my close friends and family. Continue reading “How to Wig Out Friends & Family”

June 6, 2012December 15, 2023

Time for Senior Pranks… Again

Senior pranks _ where do you draw the line?
by Martha Irvine
AP News
June 6, 2012

Chicago (AP) – Well, it’s that time of year again. Time to stash a dead fish somewhere to stink up the school hallways. Time to drop tennis balls on the heads of people in the lobby. Time to cover your soon-to-be alma mater with Post-It notes.

For high school seniors, it’s prank time – or “structured mayhem” in the words of Mindy Utay, a therapist who works with teens.

It’s a rite of passage as graduation looms, mostly harmless fun but sometimes a escalating into vandalism. This spring alone, windows at school have been smashed, walls and sidewalks spray painted, and paint poured down steps. Cars have been flipped. Property has been damaged from California to Kentucky to Maryland.

As a result, school administrators are rethinking exactly what constitutes a prank and where to draw the line – and finding that’s not always easy to do.

[Read on and watch Brigham Young University pranksters turn their friends’ living room into an Easter basket] Continue reading “Time for Senior Pranks… Again”

March 23, 2012December 15, 2023

W. Reginald Bray: The Man Who Posted Himself

From Mark Borkowski:

The man who posted himself: The suburban accountant who tested the Royal Mail to its limits, exasperated Hitler and became one of Britain’s greatest pranksters
by David Leafe
dailymail.co.uk
19 March 2012

He was a most unlikely prankster, an Edwardian husband and father whose neatly clipped moustache and smart suit gave his neighbours no reason to believe he was anything but a respectable accountant.

In his everyday life, he observed the many rules and regulations drawn up by bureaucrats of the time “” keep off the grass in public parks, refrain from spitting in the street and avoid putting your feet on train seats.

In short, he seemed a model citizen, but as in so many of us, within W. Reginald Bray there lurked an impish spirit that longed to cock a snook at officialdom.

And a clue as to his target was the red post-box outside his home in Forest Hill, a leafy suburb of South London.

Its positioning could not have been more fortuitous for a man whose hobby was to test the postal system to its limit.

Continue reading “W. Reginald Bray: The Man Who Posted Himself”