Warning Phony and Fake Letter Pranks Could Land You In Jail
I must warn you that doing this could get you some jail time and cost you some serious coin if it goes wrong so I really recommend that you not do this.
I read in a local newspaper about 2 months after I sent the following fake tax bill, a man wound up serving time and paid over $20,000 in fines for pulling something very similar to the fake letter that I am about to share. That man had placed a condemnation notice and letter on his neighbors door due to “mold contamination” and the city jailed and fined the pranker due to the time and money they wasted on tracking down that it wasn’t real and was a hoax.
The setup
A few years ago the state legislature where my friend lives passed some new laws that were going to raise taxes by a significant amount but the exact amount was not known at the time it was reported by the news. The amount was around 10 – 50% for some homeowners but my friend was about to get an astronomical increase in his tax bill.
What I did
I created a fake tax bill once this story had been in the news and I new my friend had heard. I knew what he paid for his last years tax bill and jacked his tax bill up by 400% on an official looking invoice statement and then created an accompanying letter that described why their was such a high increase to his tax rate. I included a very official looking seals and the phone number to the taxing authority’s office.
Here is the letter that accompanied the invoice that I mailed to him:
Fake Tax LetterThe Reaction
I didn’t expect his wife to open the fake tax letter but I’m glad she did. He told me that she called him crying and said, “Christmas is ruined.”
Wow, Christmas is ruined. That’s rough. I couldn’t have planned a better reaction.
My friend called the county assessor’s office, which I had supplied in the letter (looking back – big mistake as it could have gotten me a stiff fine or jail time had they prosecuted this case). The assessor’s office said that they hadn’t yet sent out the tax invoices for the year but they would look into if they had made a mistake and sent him one early.
I played dumb for a couple days and then let him in on the prank. Lucky for my, the assessor thought it was funny too. My friend’s wife was pretty pissed off for quite some time. I wonder if it’s what led to their divorce?
Got a story about a fake letter or fake item that you sent or received? I would like to hear from you in the comments below. Do you think this would have fooled you? I was thinking about placing some fake parking tickets on my friend’s car with instructions to remit cash to a post box that I own but never went through with it.
Tagged as: fake, prank
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