oh internet

Anonymous tricks people into meeting up.

Summary

Anonymous uses online dating profiles to trick people into meeting up with each other creating an "involuntary" flashmob on May 13 2011. The flyer, posted to various forums and message boards instructs users to create fake profiles and then then trick guys from dating sites into meeting them near the Times Square payphones. This specific point was chosen because it has a live webcam feed streamed on the internet.

Directions from Flyer

The directions on the post are as follows

1. Create fake online dating profile as mildly cute woman from NYC. Just use some chick's facebook to get several believable pics.
2. Find forever alone guys from NYC on dating site, get them to believe you're interested.
3. Once forever alone guy takes the bait, suggest you meet for a date at this time and location: Pay phones outside 47th Digital Store, 46th and Broadway, NY 7:30 PM, Friday May 13 2011
4. Watch angry alone guys flashmob rage at public webcam on "Camera 2"

Remember:This will only work if we keep spreading these instructions and actually get involved. There is no limit to how many fake profiles and people you can trick or method used. Take time and prepare - think smart, if they suspect you're pushing the time and date too hard, it ain't gonna work.

Origins

Also known as "together alone". First posted on reddit on March 22 2011.

Current status

In the past. Many dispute what actually happened.

Blogger Steven Liu who was in on the joke showed up and informed the other forever alones of the prank. He showed up with flowers, gave them to the other guys and then had female friends there to take pictures with. This story is disputed.

Because of the very high traffic location of the prank, it is hard to tell which people from the pictures are there because of a possible hookup and which were simply seeing the sites in Times Square on a Friday night.

Irony

The vice article sums up the irony of staying home on a Friday night to watch other people get stood up for dates,

The agreed start point was 7.30pm, but so many people had heard about the prank that I couldn’t access the ‘cam until just before 8pm. After peering at it for about five minutes, I realised that I was sat by myself in the dark at home at 1am on a Friday night, pitying at a bunch of guys for supposedly being “forever alone”. The sudden sense of irony was pretty crushing.

From the Vice comments:

"Let’s not forget that the silly fucks that orchestrated this likely spent an inordinate amount of time setting this prank up instead of doing things that people with lives would be doing otherwise."

From Reddit comments:

The best part is that it seems as though a lot of these guys ended up talking to one another, socialising, getting through shit by y'know, interacting with other human beings.
The people pulling the prank sat at home, coordinated fake singles profiles and watched the outside world on a webcam.
Sometimes I forget who it was who was meant to be forever alone in these things.

Internet's reaction

Overall, the reaction to the prank after the fact was mixed with comments such as:

"Seriously, these people are the scum of the earth and proof that 4chan is full of c*^+s."

Additionally, many showed up who were in on the joke and let in others they saw standing around.

Facts

Images

		From Vice, notice the stuffed pedobear and what pear in their hands	From Vice, these guys are not pleased

Related Pages

Forever alone

Reddit

External Links

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.

This article is part of a series on Anonymous.
You can find additional Anonymous activity here.
Explore our other categories for information on different subjects!