Comment This reminds me of my bong story (Score 1) 153
In 2003 the DEA launched an offensive called "Operation Pipe Dreams", against purveyors of drug paraphernalia- people who sold glass bongs and pipes online- enforcing a 1986 federal statute governing pipes and drug paraphernalia. Tommy Chong was one of the high profile arrestees in this operation, for being associated with a site called "Chong Glass" and its line of "Nice Dreams" smoking pipes.
These high profile busts all happened a few weeks after my wife and I had ordered a color changing waterpipe from one of those sites. Days afterward, a rather suspicious email arrived from the site announcing a "25% OFF EVERYTHING SALE" for the end of the month. The "To" address was "special@bongsite.com" (address changed to protect the guilty). We chuckled, since it couldn't be more obvious what was going on, and forgot about it.
Two days after this message arrived, I checked my email to find a couple dozen messages. The first was from some guy who claimed he forgot to enter the coupon code for his 25% off, and could the discount be applied to his order? That was quickly followed by another, who wanted to know why he got an email from a site selling bongs, and then lots of "me too" panicked messages came from paranoid stoners wanting to know why they were getting these emails, worrying out loud about Ashcroft's crackdown, claiming that they hadn't even ordered anything from the site (yeah right), observing that the site itself was down (duh) so there was no contact information available, etc. Then they would demand that someone do something to "fix" things so they would stop getting these emails- which prompted angry responses: "Get a clue I did not send this to you I also received this." It was funny watching a crowd of stoners freaking out, but the funniest email was a one line message: "so it's fair to say we all smoke weed".
Eventually some lady sent a message that seemed to shut everyone up: "Apparently they left this mailing list open to forward mail from outside sources. The only people who have any kind of exposure are people who send messages, as their identities are shown". I don't know that's really true (you could be exposed regardless), but it was consistent with the fact that both the initial "25% off sale" email, the "I forgot my coupon" email, and all of the panicked stoner emails had been sent to the same "special@bongsite.com" address, so the original "25% off sale" message could have been sent from anywhere.
These high profile busts all happened a few weeks after my wife and I had ordered a color changing waterpipe from one of those sites. Days afterward, a rather suspicious email arrived from the site announcing a "25% OFF EVERYTHING SALE" for the end of the month. The "To" address was "special@bongsite.com" (address changed to protect the guilty). We chuckled, since it couldn't be more obvious what was going on, and forgot about it.
Two days after this message arrived, I checked my email to find a couple dozen messages. The first was from some guy who claimed he forgot to enter the coupon code for his 25% off, and could the discount be applied to his order? That was quickly followed by another, who wanted to know why he got an email from a site selling bongs, and then lots of "me too" panicked messages came from paranoid stoners wanting to know why they were getting these emails, worrying out loud about Ashcroft's crackdown, claiming that they hadn't even ordered anything from the site (yeah right), observing that the site itself was down (duh) so there was no contact information available, etc. Then they would demand that someone do something to "fix" things so they would stop getting these emails- which prompted angry responses: "Get a clue I did not send this to you I also received this." It was funny watching a crowd of stoners freaking out, but the funniest email was a one line message: "so it's fair to say we all smoke weed".
Eventually some lady sent a message that seemed to shut everyone up: "Apparently they left this mailing list open to forward mail from outside sources. The only people who have any kind of exposure are people who send messages, as their identities are shown". I don't know that's really true (you could be exposed regardless), but it was consistent with the fact that both the initial "25% off sale" email, the "I forgot my coupon" email, and all of the panicked stoner emails had been sent to the same "special@bongsite.com" address, so the original "25% off sale" message could have been sent from anywhere.
