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Michael Jackson visits Boston

Talk about a great hack. A couple of people 'faked' an appearance by Michael Jackson including attendance at a Gladys Knight concert. This is while the real M. Jackson was in Bahrain. Here is an abstract from the Boston Herald Here is the story from the people who did it: This is Michael Jackson's credit card.

It's easy to get a credit card in Michael Jackson's name -- or any other celebrity, for that matter. Just order a Chase Visa card in your own name, then call your credit card company and ask them to add an "additional cardmember." Because credit card companies don't give a rat's ass about anyone's privacy, they'll happily send you a new card in any name you choose.

With your new credit card, you can create all manner of mischief. Like, for instance, staging a public appearance of Michael Jackson in Boston when he was living in Bahrain. Which is exactly what we did, in our greatest media hoax to date.

The first step was to make reservations for Mr. Jackson at every expensive hotel in Boston: the Ritz-Carlton, Four Seasons, and Boston's most elegant hotel, the Fairmont Copley Plaza. Posing as Mr. Jackson's assistant, I booked their most expensive suites, grilling hotel managers and security staff about how they would ensure Mr. Jackson's privacy. I asked for platters of cold cuts to be waiting when he arrived. "Plenty of ham," I demanded. "Mr. Jackson requires plenty of ham."

This stunt was going to cost me thousands of dollars, except I was planning on canceling all the hotel reservations before Saturday night even arrived. I just needed a plausible story for The Media, who were next on my hit list.

Next, I made an anonymous call to the Boston Herald news desk, tipping off the editor that Michael Jackson would be arriving at the Copley Plaza hotel at 6:30 pm on Saturday. Calling from a filthy payphone -- someone had recently dipped the receiver in a carton of chow mein -- I called the hotline for every Boston newspaper and TV station. Then I went home and sent anonymous e-mails to all the Michael Jackson fan sites, who were thrilled to hear that the King of Pop might be making a royal visit to his home country.

Satisfied that the buzz was building, I turned my attention to the most challenging task of all: pulling together the players that would be needed to pull off this caper, an Ocean's Eleven-style heist that would require over a dozen accomplices, and would ultimately make headlines across the world.

It was, quite simply, our greatest prank to date.

Heh... A great story -- rounding up people to play the various parts, some narrow escapes and a great concert. Posted by DaveH at March 30, 2006 7:48 PM