csua.org/u/f9y -> www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/03/basketball_pran.html
Airport Security Failure >> March 14, 2006 Basketball Prank On March 4, University of California Berkeley (Cal) played a basketball game against the University of Southern California (USC). With Cal in contention for the PAC-10 title and the NCAA tournament at stake, the game was a must-win.
Victoria was a hoax UCLA co-ed, created by Cal's Rally Committee. For the previous week, "she" had been chatting with Gabe Pruitt, USC's starting guard, over AOL Instant Messenger. Pruitt and several of his teammates made plans to go to Westwood after the game so that they could party with Victoria and her friends. On Saturday, at the game, when Pruitt was introduced in the starting lineup, the chants began: "Victoria, Victoria." The look on Pruitt's face when he turned to the bench after the first Victoria chant was priceless. The expression was unlike anything ever seen in collegiate or pro sports. Never did a chant by the opposing crowd have such an impact on a visiting player.
First, this is the cleverest social engineering attack I've read about in a long time. Second, authentication is hard in little text windows -- but it's no less important.
Lou the troll Posted by: Lou the troll at March 14, 2006 12:39 PM If you've got a guy thinking with the head dangling between his legs, then you can pretty much get him to do anything. This looks like an interesting variation on one of the older tricks in the book.
Homeland Stupidity at March 14, 2006 12:41 PM In the college and geek world, this is called a "hack", not a prank. And this is one of the best MIND HACKS I've ever heard of.
Jim Thompson at March 14, 2006 01:43 PM That phone number was the player's, not the girl's - a touch more psychologically devestating, I think. at March 14, 2006 02:25 PM That does not seem at all sportsmanlike, and invites equally brutal retaliation. Posted by: Daedala at March 14, 2006 03:27 PM > invites equally brutal retaliation. You intend to jar the opposing team's player, but your consequence is that next year they hire a prostitute to *really* mess with your star player... Posted by: Pat Cahalan at March 14, 2006 03:58 PM And he wants to be a computer engineer.
eletido at March 14, 2006 04:04 PM Re the picture, he's #34. asp Posted by: Max at March 14, 2006 06:36 PM Question is, if you get an unsolicited IM, "Gosh, are you really Gabe Pruitt?" If one were to use video chat, unless you ALWAYS use video chat, you have no assurance that it's the same person.
Nick Lancaster at March 14, 2006 06:45 PM @ Jim Thompson Hacks are defined to be harmless. Posted by: Quindar at March 14, 2006 06:50 PM Sex is the human male's oldest exploit. That said, I really don't see anything clever about this. Posted by: jj at March 14, 2006 07:00 PM I was at the game. Yes, he was shocked, than humiliated, then angry, then accepting, and eventually he was laughing about it.
seamus at March 14, 2006 07:14 PM I've seen some pretty funny interactions between the crowd and players before. I've seen plenty of player taken completely out of a game by clever crowds, but this takes the cake in terms of preparation and effectiveness, which is almost sad for me to admit being a Stanford grad. Posted by: John Harrison at March 14, 2006 09:28 PM Revolting "joke." If this is truly what students are now doing at Berkeley, I'm ashamed of my own college.
Ralph at March 14, 2006 09:56 PM As a graduate of the sister University of California institution from down the coast, I am shocked and appalled by this disgusting joke. To boot, I am even more ashamed that we at the UCLA rally committee didn't think of this first. Posted by: bruin8uclap at March 14, 2006 11:17 PM I think this crosses the line. Like the government or random companies aren't enough to worry about... Posted by: jona at March 14, 2006 11:20 PM I applaud the cleverness of it, and the thoroughness with which they pulled it off. That said, this would have been a lot funnier before college hoops fans started making sexual comments about players' mothers and underage sisters.
Matt at March 15, 2006 12:15 AM All is fair in love and war. Posted by: Sma at March 15, 2006 12:15 AM I wonder, was this the first player they attempted this hack on? Or, was he just the first player stupid enough to fall for it? USC students are usually a very moronic and simple minded bunch. Posted by: bruin8uclap at March 15, 2006 12:23 AM If the prank influenced the player's performance, why didn't the coach make a substitution? Regardless of the reason, I think if you have a player who is having a bad night, it is up to the coach to recognize that and make adjustments.
Scott at March 15, 2006 01:14 AM Well, my first reaction was to check and see if 3 of 13 (23%) was an anomaly. Maybe I'm missing something, and I'm no Basketball stats expert, but I do not see the "causation" link from the data. playerId=22161 12/29 California 5 of 14 (35%) 12/31 Stanford 2 of 7 (29%) 1/18 @UCLA 1 of 9 (11%) 3/2 @Stanford 4 of 13 (30%) 3/4 @California 3 of 13 (23%) 3/9 @California 5 of 15 (33%) The anecdote about the fans is amusing, but I'm not seeing the connection. and even then, it might just be Cal at home doing a good job or having a good night. My second reaction was to wonder if all the "player talk" on the court should be lumped in with what you would call social engineering. I would say no, and not just because it reminds me of the awful lines in Rocky movies. It's kind of an insult to engineering (let alone social engineers) to say all you have to do is insult or trick someone and you've "engineered" a reaction.
Davi Ottenheimer at March 15, 2006 01:40 AM > Hacks are defined to be harmless. It is just a game, so there wasn't any harm in effecting it's outcome. Posted by: Me at March 15, 2006 02:16 AM I find this prank a bit much. Sure, people shrug and say it's just a "game", but then why go so far as to manipulating with someone so personally for it? Posted by: Gloria at March 15, 2006 05:38 AM College is for learning lessons about how to get along in the real world. An athlete goes through the same thing, but a tradeoff for a scholarship and maybe a career is the media spotlight.
Miss Cellania at March 15, 2006 05:57 AM Not a very original or clever prank. Posted by: poopscooper at March 15, 2006 06:08 AM Okay, in terms of the sheer effectiveness of the hoax, I consider the execution brilliant. In terms of the overall sportsmanlike conduct, I consider the hoax inappropriate. That said, I think "sports" implies a rule-based arena in which to compete according to the rules for the purpose of measuring overall individual or team effectiveness in competition with another individual/team. It seems to me that there was a lot to lose: "the PAC-10 title and the NCAA tournament." I don't need to be a sports fan to appreciate the gravity of this outcome.
Richard Harlos at March 15, 2006 07:56 AM I think this prank is horrible, cruel and really mean spirtited. We have all experienced some variation of a situation like this, even if it was in third grade and someone told you so-and-so liked you but when you approached them they didn't know what you were talking about. I really think this is a malicious thing to do, and to a stranger who has done nothing other than play basketball well. I really hope the universities or athletic associaction step in. If you can only win by publicly humiliating someone, you should not play. Posted by: martha at March 15, 2006 08:11 AM Next time they should threaten to kill his mother if he doesn't throw the game...
It was Cal who had a chance (and despite winning the game, they did not win the title). I'm a biased Cal grad, but I do not think that this is horrible or cruel. It is very meanspirited, but that's to be expected in sports. Posted by: Geoff at March 15, 2006 09:07 AM "A funny prank. I'm a biased Cal grad, but I do not think that this is horrible or cruel. It is very meanspirited, but that's to be expected in sports." So whay you're saying is that "Good Sportsmanship" and "Fair Play" are antiquated concepts that have no place in modern collegiate athletics? Next time why don't we just call in a bomb threat the hotel where the opposing team is...
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