Wakerich Asylum for the Criminally Insane

This one almost had me believing that it was real. It's Wakerich Asylum for the Criminally Insane. It all looks very official and real, right down to the phone numbers, staff bios, and maps to the asylum. It only starts to become fishy when you notice that the complete records of all the patients are accessible online. The supposed explanation for this is that "Patient information is being made available to the public after a ruling by The New York State Appellate Court in a Freedom of Information case brought by Health Insurance Companies against the State of New York." You've got to do a google search to discover that Wakerich Asylum is really the creation of the folks over at Whirled History. For $9.99 a year they'll admit you as a patient at Wakerich, with your own email account. So when friends or employers search for info about you on the web, they'll come across your asylum record. It would be more fun if you could admit other people into the asylum, but I think they'll only allow you to use your own name (or the name on your credit card). Whirled History will also allow you to become a monk at Pho Monastery.

Psychology Websites

Posted on Wed Oct 20, 2004


Comments

is this even legal? what with hiding your info I mean..or is it a privacy protecting program?
Posted by Jenny  on  Wed Oct 20, 2004  at  05:50 PM
If you take a close look at the "Physicians" page, you'll see that one of the doctors is a Colonel. That would be cool, except there are NO COLONELS in the NAVY. Look at it! He's got a freaking anchor on his hat.
Posted by Gigi  on  Wed Oct 20, 2004  at  05:59 PM
Gigi is correct. The photograph of "Col. Alex Smilkof" is actually a US Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer. That's a long cry from a colonel.
Posted by Rob  on  Wed Oct 20, 2004  at  08:33 PM
If you look at the patients profiles, they're all listed as male, even the two Janets.
Posted by Craig  on  Thu Oct 21, 2004  at  06:15 AM
It's a hoax-y website. They probably don't care that it's not accurate. Plus, if people are paying to be on the site, maybe they requested that they be listed as a specific rank.
Posted by Maegan  on  Thu Oct 21, 2004  at  12:56 PM
Pity they couldn't even run spell check on the website...
Posted by Ev  on  Thu Oct 21, 2004  at  02:11 PM
Hmmm...

Sally J. Biddow
Gender: Male
Marital status: Single
Previous Occupation: Housewife
Criminal history includes "Sex Offenses, Forcible Rape:"

Uhhhh... Huh? You'd think that if they're going to charge people for this "service" the least they could do is make the entries make some sense.

Myria
Posted by Myria  on  Mon Oct 25, 2004  at  11:34 AM
This website has been shut down with the following notice:

Due to large demand, enrollment at this website has closed early. (And as always, the name "Wakerich" has been changed to maintain the integrity of the hoax.)

But please do visit with us each and every month to see what new ways we have created for changing the course of history!
Posted by Dusty  on  Tue Dec 28, 2004  at  04:12 PM
They probably don't care that it's not accurate. Plus, if people are paying to be on the site, maybe they requested that they be listed as a specific rank.
Posted by blue cross insurance  on  Thu Apr 03, 2008  at  04:18 PM
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