Tuesday, April 09, 2013

First of April, a fool's day.


 My brain is buzzing with activity and I am working hard on solving a critical bug. Well... that bug was not doing well and so was I; trying hard to decode the issue. It was about half past three in the evening and work was taking a toll on my concentration. As I was mucking through the code, my mobile goes off, indicating an incoming call. I looked it up and it was a local number. Thought it might be telemarketers or maybe from my apartment office. Maybe my apartment is on fire.. or some thing worse!! So I took the call and a lady answers on the other end.

lady: Am I talking to Alphonse.
Me: Yeah.
lady: Did you put up an advert on Craigslist, regarding fresh meat.
Note: I heard it as fresh meat, but I think the lady said free meat. you will get the difference by the end of this post.
Me: NO!
lady: I think... somebody posted an advert with your name and number on Craigslist, regarding fresh meat.
Me: Hmmmm.... Thanks for letting me know, I guess.

and I disconnect the call. Before I let go off my phone, another call comes in and again a local number. Now I realize, that something is wrong and switch off my phone to avoid getting calls.

Now the thoughts, that were going through my mind were; somebody hacked my account, or my laptop and posted this advert, just for fun or something else crazy is happening. How the hell, did they know my name and mobile number?  First thing that I wanted to do,  search for personal advert's in Craigslist, since "fresh meat" triggered a prison lingo and "men want men, men want women" sections were the one's that were highlighted in my thoughts. Well I was going for the worst thoughts... of mine and expecting them to be false.

But I was in office and I really did not want to use my office network to access Craigslist personal section; to search for this advert. Now I can't use my smart phone also, cos I had switch it off, to avoid getting the numerous calls.

So I decided to head home to use my home network to do my detecting stuff. I drive back home, deep in contemplation about, what could have happened. Then it dawns on me, that somebody could be playing a prank on me, since this was 1st of April. Anyways... I had to find the advert and get it removed, just to avoid getting the calls at least. So after I reach home, I search the online personal section for my name and number, cos the lady had mentioned that. I come across a lot of advert which I wish I had not seen, but truth requires sacrifice and so I trudge along and no hits. I tried to search based on timestamp and again no hits. I tried few more times and then decided to ping my friends about this. And voila, one of my friend replies back with the advert link and mocked me, that "I must be dumbest person", cos he was able to find it in 30 seconds.

The advert was in the sales section, which I decided to avoid, based on the "fresh meat" and its -ve connotation. This is an example of tunnel vision or thinking inside the box.

Here it goes... Didn't take a snapshot, but trying to recollect word for word.

--SNIP--
Hi,
    I have over 75lbs of lamb meat left over from a party. I am ready to give it for free.
    Call up this number XXX-XXX-XXXX and ask for YYY. I will not respond
   back to emails.

-YYY
--SNIP--

Now you can see, how I could have mistaken free & fresh meat. So boom, I log a case with Craigslist and mark this advert as prohibited. Within an hour, the advert vanishes of the site. I switch on my mobile and see 30 missed calls, more than 30 texts and voice mails. Phew... I was just happy, that the phone just stopped ringing and nuked all of 'em.

Now, I was thinking... who the hell, did I piss off so much; for them to play a prank on me like this.
And I did find out the next day. When you have friends like these, why would you need enemies!!

It was a memorable, fools days for me; with me being the butt of the joke. But hey, it made me test Craigslist's support service and response time. :D

The End.