Graphic designer Edd Joseph of Bristol, U.K., bought a second-hand PlayStation 3 from a stranger via the website Gumtree, a free classified ads site similar to Craigslist. Unfortunately, despite sending his £80 payment via bank transfer, the seller did not deliver the device.
Joseph went to the police but was unfortunately told that his chances of catching the scammer were slim. To add insult to injury, he sent his payment via bank transfer and this is against Gumtree's terms and conditions.
Furious, Joseph decided to take his own revenge. He knew that he could copy texts from the internet and send them as text message. No matter the number of messages sent, this would neither cost him a penny with his unlimited mobile phone package. He then used this to get revenge on his scammer.
Joseph searched for a Shakespeare play on his iPhone's browser, copied the whole text and pasted it into a text message. The play may be long but Joseph only had to press the send button once and his phone carrier will split the long message into several text messages.
"My first thought was that I could try and pretend I had found out where he lived but it was all a bit of a cliche and it wasn't going to worry him really," Joseph said. "Then it just occurred to me you can copy and paste things from the internet and into a text message."
Joseph first sent the whole text of Macbeth which was delivered in chunks of 600 text messages. He also sent Cymbeline which was sent in 847 texts, All's Well That Ends Well at 861 messages and Hamlet, which was delivered in 1143 text messages.
"I got the first reply after an hour, and then a few more abusive messages after that. His phone must have been going off pretty constantly for hours," Joseph related. "But recently he has taken to calling me and giving me abuse on the phone. I tried to ask him if he was enjoying the plays, but he was very confused."
Joseph has so far sent his scammer the complete text of 22 Shakespeare plays and this only required him to press the send button 22 times and since his £37 a month phone package gives him unlimited texts and calls, sending the lengthy plays did not cost him at all.
"I'm not a literary student, and I'm not an avid fan of Shakespeare but I've got a new appreciation you could say - especially for the long ones," Joseph said.
