Tomas and all, ****OFF TOPIC**** This should be worth a few chuckles.
Friday April 7 6:26 PM ET
OPEC Prank Backfires on Canadian Internet Firm
CALGARY (Reuters) - A Canadian company thought it would produce a few on-line laughs on April Fool's Day when it set up a Web site and, posing as OPEC, reported the oil cartel had agreed to offer free gasoline to the world's motorists.
Now the folks behind the hoax have a few gas pains of their own -- they agreed on Friday to honor the promise to calm duped Internet surfers who drove to service stations across North America and demanded free gas, courtesy of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. 'They were going to the gas stations and the gas operators were saying, 'We know nothing about this -- what the hell are you talking about?' said Jeff Connor, spokesman with Toronto-based satirical Web site operator JokeWeb.com Inc., which perpetrated the prank. ``It was all over the U.S. and places in Canada as well.'
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On April 1, the company set up a site called OpecInfo (http://www.OpecInfo.com) which included a news release, apparently from Vienna, where OPEC nations such as Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Iran had actually met the week before to agree on lifting oil output to help lower world crude prices.
It said OPEC leaders, after 22 hours of emergency meetings with independent fuel distributors, were close to an agreement to offer free gasoline on the first Saturday of each month, for the next six months, to anyone who filled out an on-line form.
The oil nations were said to be ready to foot the whole bill. ``We certainly don't expect gas stations to give away free gas, we're just asking station operators not to charge the consumer, and to send all customer gas receipts to OPEC for reimbursement,' the phony new release said.
Connor said 653 people filled out the form, and each would now be entitled to $50 worth of gas a month for six months starting in May, a total bill of $195,900.
``It's going to be a little costly,' he said.
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