The best prank I ever pulled was on a former boss. I worked at a cheap motel where the boss lived in an on-site apartment, so all his personal mail came to the motel. He also used his personal credit card and turned in expense reports for business purposes, so one day I jotted down his final 4 digits of his credit card number and expiration date, and went to work.
This prank had legit effort put into it. I found a Ukranian mail-order bride company based out of New England. Copying the themes on the website, I made a "welcome packet" using the profile of the youngest, blondest girl I could find. The packet included pricing for various services available and marriage visa information, all pulled straight from the website. I also made a "receipt" that implied his card had been charged $500 for an initiation fee from the company. I finished it all with an envelope with a fake postmark to make it look like it had arrived from New England, and on that April 1st, I picked up his mail on my way to work and slipped it in with the rest of the envelopes.
Everything on the paperwork I made used actual information from this company, in case he Googled it, to make it seem fully convincing. The only thing I changed was the phone number: I put our corporate office's number down figuring that he would open the envelope, have a fit of panic and rage, call the number to complain, and when it turned out to be our own home office the jig would be up. That was how the plan played out in my head...
Unfortunately what I overlooked was that our home office was in Dallas, area code 972.
So when the prank actually played out, my boss first completely overlooked that it would be suspect of me to go out of my way to get his mail on any day, let alone April 1st. He opened the mail and I heard him scream "WHAT THE HELL?!?!" from his office.
Because he saw the 972 area code on the phone number, he was convinced it was a 1-900 number that would charge him even more money than he thought he had been charged. So he did not call our corporate office and discover the prank. Instead, he called Capital One.
The poor credit card rep on the other end of the line was understandably confused, as there was zero suspect activity on his account. My boss spent several minutes going over his recent transactions with the rep, looking for any fraudulent transactions.
I was standing outside his office door trying not to die from laughter.
One of my coworkers who was wise to my plan was brave enough to go into the office to calm him down.
Coworker: "Look, boss, look at that oh one number."
Boss: "I know! It's a 1-900 number and they'll charge me..."
Coworker: "Really look at that number."
Boss: "Wait...I know that number. How do I know that number?"
Here, I stepped into the office. I could see him connecting the dots (this was not the first BS I had ever pulled), but he still couldn't fit all the pieces together.
Boss: "This...this is a prank? But it can't be a prank. How would you have gotten my credit card number?"
Me: "I didn't."
Boss: "But how..." *points to receipt*
Me: "Do you see your full credit card number on there? Or do you see just the last four digits of your credit card number there? The same four digits that are on, say, any receipt you turn in with your expense reports."
I turned and walked away to clock in and start my shift as the final puzzle pieces settled in my boss's brain.
All I heard as I walked out the door was "YOU FUCKING LITTLE WITCH!!!"
It was all worth it.
I have never been able to top that prank since.
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