Victoria’s Secret Basketball Prank

Status: prank
image Here's a prank that definitely rates as one of the more inventive (and cruel) student pranks of recent years. The set-up occurred a week before a NCAA game pitting UC Berkeley against the University of Southern California. USC's starting guard, Gabe Pruitt (pictured), met a UCLA coed named Victoria online. They traded messages via AOL Instant Messenger. She sent him her picture. He sent her his. They arranged to meet after the game on March 4.

The sinker occurred during the March 4th game. When Pruitt appeared on the court, UC fans started to chant "VIC-TOR-IA, VIC-TOR-IA." Their chants continued throughout the game, escalating to include the recitation of Pruitt's phone number. Transcripts of Pruitt's IM chats with "Victoria" were also circulated throughout the crowd (including classic lines such as "You look like you have a very fit body... Now I want to c u so bad"). Pruitt was visibly shocked, missed a bunch of free throws, and ended up 3-for-13 from the field.

It turned out that "Victoria" didn't exist. She was the fictional creation of a couple of UC fans. Pruitt had been punk'd. Understandably, some USC fans aren't too happy about the prank. (So are they plotting revenge?) (via Deadspin and Schneier on Security)

By coincidence, a similar prank was in the news last week (though it was far creepier and more disturbing in its implications). Five boys created an online profile of a fictitious 15-year-old girl they called "Jessica." To their surprise, a 48-year-old guy contacted "Jessica" and started to chat her up. The five boys played along, and eventually lured the guy into meeting Jessica in real life. But when the guy showed up for the meeting, it was the police, not Jessica, who were waiting for him.

Both these incidents go to show that you never really know who you're talking to on the internet. Or as Reality Rule 6.3 from Hippo Eats Dwarf states: "On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog." (It makes more sense if you see the cartoon it refers to.)

Related Posts:
Jan. 6, 2004: Vixen Love
Sep. 6, 2005: Skype Prank

Identity/Imposters Pranks Sports

Posted on Thu Mar 16, 2006



Comments

This is such a crappy "prank" that it makes me glad that I don't use IM, chatrooms, forums, etc. I have a small circle of personally known friends whom I interact with. Anything else that I do on the net is purely non-interactive (like here).

I wouldn't even call it a "prank"
Posted by Bummed  on  Fri Mar 17, 2006  at  08:46 AM
At the Arizona home basketball games there is always a publication distributed to the student section that will have some sort of personal information about one of the players on the other team, and a word or phrase to chant relating to this whenever they have they ball. I could definitely see the publishers of our student section publication doing something like this.

The point is that the world of college sports is cruel. People have personal connections with the teams and the fans love to feel that they are doing something to help them. The best way to "help" their own team is to bring down the opposing team.

I think this "prank" was brilliant. I'm probably also going to hell, but that's a whole nother issue.
Posted by Razela  on  Fri Mar 17, 2006  at  01:09 PM
The 48 year old pervert should be glad he was chatting up a group of law abiding boys...
Posted by hcmomof4  on  Fri Mar 17, 2006  at  01:16 PM
The pedophile got PUNK'D!!!! HAHAHAHAHAH...

*clears throat*
With the internet you could be anybody and no one would know....
Posted by Eva  on  Fri Mar 17, 2006  at  04:03 PM
...I'm naked. Maybe.
Posted by Maegan  on  Fri Mar 17, 2006  at  09:15 PM
It's doubly-ironic when you bear in mind the real identity of (cough) "Alex Boese" (which translates from the German as "Alex Badly").
Posted by Ashley Pomeroy  on  Sat Mar 18, 2006  at  05:35 AM
Regarding the fake "Jessica", and the 48-year old man: there is a website that specializes in entrapping this sort of person: http://www.perverted-justice.com

Regards,
Simonpure
Posted by Simonpure  on  Wed Mar 22, 2006  at  02:29 PM
you should cite your sources, like where you got this picture, that's my friend there.
Posted by Reb  on  Sun Apr 09, 2006  at  11:04 PM
=)+)
Posted by pulda  on  Thu Apr 05, 2007  at  03:49 PM
I think this "prank" was brilliant. I'm probably also going to hell,and replace Satan there..
Posted by Superstar Shoes  on  Wed Feb 04, 2009  at  09:11 PM
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