One of several dozen photos posted on theCHIVE.com
Hold on to your marker board!
The young woman who became an overnight Internet sensation for seemingly quitting her job through a series of 33 simple, but clever photos — each with another detail about her resignation and supposed former employers — is an actress hired for a viral hoax.
The stunt was so successful that it even sparked a Facebook group calling for her to pose in “Playboy”.
Fittingly, the hoax was revealed through another series of messages told in photographs and posted online.
“The last 24 hours have been surreal,” the woman who identified herself as Elyse Porterfield wrote as she grinned broadly. “And this has been a HOAX … by theCHIVE.com.”
She wrote that she “had a blast, and more than anything … I hope you’ve been ENTERTAINED.”
We were.
You fooled countless bloggers, journalists and talking heads — and nobody got hurt, except for maybe a few egos.
Tech Talk commends you on distracting us from reality, if only for a few minutes, and bringing smiles to the faces of thousands.
Of course, this should also remind us all how important it is to screen information before running with it — as far too many writers failed to do. While this incident did not cause any damage or harm, similar ones could. So, please, tread carefully. Remember, it’s not about being first, it’s about being accurate — something Tech Talk strives for.
If you haven’t checked out the photos, please do so. They’re fun.
The brothers who run theCHIVE.com have fooled the press before — most notably with a story that Donald Trump left a waiter a $10,000 tip on a $82 meal, a story appeared on FOXNews.com for several hours.
Still want to read more? Check out more details from TechCrunch here.
I’m not really sure how people were fooled, it looked to be fairly obviously fake from the first look.
Comment by Chris Preovolos — August 12th, 2010 @ 8:38 am
Nice plug for reporters to check their facts first. Way too often there’s a jump to be the first out of the box without any care to see if it’s right. Imagine if other professions worked that way.
Comment by Peter — August 13th, 2010 @ 10:10 am
The “I saw it on the internet therefore it was true” syndrome
It’s amazing how much once respected (and not so respected) sources of the news have taken to supplementing their materials with information that has not been vetted.
There was a time when if you read something attributed to a newspaper, depending on the paper, while you may not have agreed with it, you assumed it was valid. Now, I assume in an effort to reduce costs for online papers, they use bloggers. I can’t wait for the first high profile libel lawsuit.
She is pretty darned cute, however
Comment by John Z — September 5th, 2010 @ 9:17 pm