How's this for dumb: a student in Ireland hears the name the new Pope has chosen, and sets up an email address: popebenedictxvi@hotmail.it. And tries to sell it to him!
Hello, don't you think they've got internet access in the Vatican? If he'd done his research, he'd know that the Vatican, being a sovereign state, has its own top-level domain (.va) and its own website, or several (the English one is vatican.va). I think pope@vatican.va is a more likely address.
(Reminds me of the guy who spammed Usenet a few years back offering to search the web for people - for a fee, of course. Not like Yahoo et al who'd do it for free.)
But who would he want to sell it to, other than the Pope? Why would someone else want to identify himself as the pope, when everyone knows he's just Joe Bloggs?
The Vatican has a website. They do not need to pay for another one, let alone an Italian hotmail account.
The buyer and the seller are morons.
Well the bidding is on ã80 at the moment...doesnt sound too dumb to me
The buyer's probably very dumb, but the seller? He's just havin' a good time. And making money too.
You hit the nail on the head Safiyyah Said. It has been great fun and I have done quite a few media interviews and I'm loving every minute of it.
Now I'm afraid it's time I got away from this piss-poor blog as it's clear that Indigo Jo Blogs invents things as he goes along. That said, I think he/she needs to. I'd appreciate you'd join me elsewhere by clicking on the link below to make your escape:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=162&item=5574799070&rd=1
All the Best,
popebenedictxvi@hotmail.it
Oh, and the Pope's real email address is:
benedictxvi@vatican.va.
Sadly, I'm still receiving a lot of emails from people who think I'm the Pope.
One more thing. Where did you hear I tried to sell it to the Pope? Or did you just make that up? I'm not all that stupid either, I think you're playing up to the Irish stereotypes on that one. Or was it just a useful introduction so that you could enlighten your readership with your incredibly perceptive wisdom?
So, you're trying to sell it to someone who intends to impersonate the Pope?
And how dare you accuse me of "playing up to Irish stereotypes". I'm part Irish myself (from Connemara) and it hadn't crossed my mind.
And by the way, the name of the lady you replied to is simply Safiyya. Not Safiyya Said. (If you looked, you'll find that "said" appears after all the names.)
Apologies for my mistake - that certainly was stupid! I thought it was a surname,as in Edward Said, the famous humanist thinker.
I still think you were playing up to Irish stereotypes though, even if a small part of you is from my favourite part of Ireland. You STILL haven't explained where you got your information about me allegedly trying to sell it to the Pope from!
Perhaps that was your Irish side coming out, we're pretty strong on the fiction front.
Well, the usual trick is to acquire an address or domain name with someone else's identity and trying to sell it to them. I apologise if that's not what you are trying to do. I just wonder who would want the pope's identity.
Okay, Monsieur Seller, now I am questioning your intelligence! What's with the belligerent tone? You're making this seem all the more serious than it should be. Relax. :-)
Let's settle this once and for all. Though it seems trivial from the outside, it isn't particularly nice to see people say things about you on the Internet that aren't true and make you look stupid, so the billigerent tone was called for, if a little reactionary.
That said, I'd like to retract my statement about this blog, which isn't piss-poor, with the exception of the post at the top of this page.
Anyway, it's no longer an issue as eBay have taken my "product" down, probably because my description of the product might have offended some people. I've been approached since then with a couple of bidders (via my email address) and will be selling it on soon.
Wishing you all the best of luck in the future, The Seller Said ;-).
You will burn in the flames of hell for this deciept Vincenzo, hell, i tell you, HHHHHEEEEELLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thought you'd get a kick out of this: http://www.askthepope.blogspot.com/
Don't go haranguing him now!!!
[...] Indigo Jo’s post reminds me of another scheme to make money - this one a bit more clever. The fellow behind Savetoby.com claims that if he does not receive $50,000 by June 30, he will eat the adorable rabbit he’s named Toby. Animal rights activists are up in arms, demanding the website be taken down and pressuring PayPal to shut down the Savetoby account. The story was featured several days ago on NBC Nightly News. [...]