This morning, among the myriad of prejudiced opinion pieces and spoiler-filled reviews, came an interesting email claiming to be the one who orchestrated the Charlie Puth scam. To show legitimacy, they attached a screenshot of their admin access to both the Facebook page and the event website. They scheduled an exclusive Zoom meeting to offer to tell us about their side of things and pointed out the confidential nature of it all, showing they sent the mail from a disposable address. The discretion did not reflect on their screenshot, however, which had pinned tabs of their university portal and Canvas Student dashboard.
At 6:00 pm we entered the Zoom link and waited for the host to start the meeting, who then joined and apologised using the Google Chrome text to speech (TTS), saying that their class was prolonged. Then before we could pose a question, the voice started “You might be wondering who we are and to be very frank you have the resources to track my IP to find out. But I would appreciate it if you don’t.” Observing the name on the screen, we then advised them to rename themselves because the number seemed less like an IP address and more like a student ID. The realisation hit and a few moments of silence followed. After renaming, they started again-
TTS: Well, as I was saying, we are maintaining anonymity because what we did may look like a bad attempt at scamming. But if exposed, it is a punishable offence, as I have read.
TBS: There are other variables that decide so, like intention. Where did you read about it?
TTS: Our LAW101 course.
TBS: Oh….Anyways, if it wasn’t a ‘bad attempt at scamming’, what was it an attempt at?
TTS: It’s up to you if you choose to believe it or not. But it was for a business competition. Honestly, we didn’t expect it to blow up like this.
TBS: They provided a task to create a campaign using real people and places?
TTS: Well, no, we did it on our own, to prove the campaign works. Feasibility analysis has 20 marks in it.
TBS: Can you tell us the name of the competition?
TTS: Well, it is yet to launch. Early 2024 tentative.
TBS: So you saw the marks distribution from the last season. The tasks may not be the same this time.
TTS: Well, there was no last season. It will be the first instalment.
TBS: Then how do you know the marks or tasks?
TTS: Club senior. It’s an intra competition.
TBS: There must be a hefty prize money then.
TTS: Well, not exactly. But the recognition will be rewarding.
TBS: So, you just want attention?
TTS: And maybe the clubmate’s heart. Ha. ha.
TBS: The website domain hosting and everything, it must have lightened your pocket.
TTS: Oh, I raised it with the 2k general ticket money.
TBS: It was debunked an hour before you released the tickets. Who fell for it then?
TTS: Club juniors.
TBS: Okay. The question still remains- why go through this much trouble?
TTS: Well, you see, these might sound like shallow reasons. But the amount of data I collected from doing this – I can easily repurpose for some of my GED course assignments. This little scheme speaks volumes about consumer behaviour. I already wrote a Linkedin post admiring the sceptical, journalistic instinct of our youth and what this means for our startup scene as we move forward to 2024. The post was a hit. It got 13 ‘insightful’ reacts and I appeared in 9 searches this week alone.
On the other hand, I could filter out the club juniors dumb enough to fall for it. Easier for us to decide the executive panel. And I cannot begin to mention the hilarious memes that came as a byproduct. You could even say “Every crowd has a silver lining.” Ha Ha. No?
TBS: (in just as robotic a tone) No.
TTS: Okay I will see myself out.
We didn’t talk anymore. The host ended the meeting abruptly. Afterwards, we pondered the interviewee’s commentary on human behaviour and scamming as we started doomscrolling through Facebook,. The newsfeed is littered with troll concert posts of dead artists. There was also the announcement of Evaly’s comeback.