How to Play Internet April Fool's Pranks

April Fool's Day is celebrated on April 1st, and is the one day a year when everyone should keep their guard up. Anyone can become the target or someone's pranks and tricks. But unlike in years past where pranks were typically of a "real world" nature, nowadays it's becoming more common for people to use the Internet to play pranks on one another.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Email account

1. Find funny pictures on the Internet and send the links to your friends and co-workers. You can either email the links, or you can send them via an instant message.
2. Ask someone to look at a "document" you've been working on by sending it to them as an attachment. What you put in the document is up to you, but it should be something slightly shocking (pretend divorce papers, a last will that includes you giving a fortune to the recipient of the email).
3. Send links for Internet games to friends and co-workers. There are a number of different games that are designed to get those who play to relax, only to startle them with a scary image and a loud sound.
4. Create a bogus web page that informs the people you send to it that they've won a contest--the bigger the prize the better. Have them fill out their information on a bogus entry form. Once they complete the form you can have an automated email message sent to their inbox informing them of the prank!
5. Learn from those who have already done a number of Internet pranks. Websites like TheFoolsDay.com offer ideas for a wide variety of pranks, including a few that are perfect for the Internet (see Resources below).

Tips & Warnings

• Try to limit your April Fool's Internet pranks to those that are easy to load on computers. This makes it easy for pranks to be more universal. If the prank you wish to play involves a lot of video, imagery or sound then you run the risk of having it take too long to load.
• If you plan on using a shock site to pull an April Fool's Internet prank on someone, do not send it to them at work. Some shock sites are incredibly offensive, and people looking as such materials at their desk can end up being terminated. Don't get someone fired for a simple prank.