History BavarianFireDrill / RealLife

* There is a story about Steve Jobs dropping out of Reed College after one semester. He continued to stay on campus, sleeping on his friend's floor, eating other students' leftovers (an institution at Reed dubbed "The Scrounge"), and auditing classes, one of them being a calligraphy class, which [[ChekovsSkill influenced the font designs of the Macintosh]]. However, it's highly likely that everyone knew what he was doing and no one cared.

* On March 18, 1990, two thieves likewise disguised as policemen [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabella_Stewart_Gardner_Museum_theft robbed an estimated $500 million in artwork from the Isabella Steward Gardner Museum in Boston]] by buzzing the door, asking to be let in. They pretended to recognize the night guard at the desk as having an outstanding warrant and managed to restrain both guards, whereupon they revealed they were thieves and told the guards to give them no trouble. Neither thief has been apprehended and the stolen artworks are still yet to be recovered.

* On March 18, 1990, two thieves likewise disguised as policemen [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabella_Stewart_Gardner_Museum_theft robbed an estimated $500 million in artwork from the Isabella Steward Gardner Museum in Boston]] by buzzing the door, asking to be let in. They pretended to recognize the night guard at the desk as having an outstanding warrant and managed to restrain both guards, whereupon they revealed they were thieves and told the guards to give them no trouble. The stolen artworks are still yet to be recovered.

* There is a story about Steve Jobs dropping out of Reed College after one semester. He continued to stay on campus, sleeping on his friend's floor, eating other students' leftovers (an institution at Reed dubbed "The Scrounge"), and auditing classes. However, it's highly likely that everyone knew what he was doing and no one cared.

* In 2011, while Wisconsin governor Scott Walker was engaged in a highly publicized battle over public sector unions, journalist Ian Murphy called Walker's office and [[https://www.huffpost.com/entry/scott-walker-prank-caller_n_827148 claimed to be billionaire businessman David Koch]]. Walker's staff put the call through, and Walker spoke with "Koch" for several minutes, talking openly about possible plans to trick the opposing party or discredit protestors. Murphy recorded the conversation and subsequently released it to the public.

* Prior to the 2017 Presidential Inauguration, Fox News host Tucker Carlson interviewed a man going by the name "Dom Tullipso" (he insisted it be pronounced "tu-yipp-so") who claimed to be a protester who was being paid to cause violence at the event. Carlson asked Tullipso why he had provided no ID or proof that his organization was even real, to which Tullipso responded that he didn't need to, as simply claiming to be a paid protester with no proof had gotten him ''multiple'' appearances in various media outlets, in which he had claimed to support "our national heroes like Peyton Manning" and demanded the Roswell records be declassified. ''And he was still booked.''

** Life Guards are usually taught that, if the person in distress is a child, try and send the parent of the child to call emergency services. First, the parent is probably panicking and this isn't helping you or the child any, and a 911 operator is trained to talk the parent. Second, the parent knows the child's medical history better than anyone else on the pool. Third, it keeps the distracted parent from further panic as what's about to happen is [[UsefulNotes/CPRCleanPrettyReliable not gonna be pretty.]] For added bonus, to get the rest of the crowd on board, order someone else to go to the gate and flag down the ambulance and possibly designate a third person to be a message runner between the parent and you.

* In 2011, journalist Ian Murphy called the office of Wisconsin governor Scott Walker claiming to be billionaire businessman David Koch, and further claimed he couldn't have Walker call him back because his maid accidentally threw his phone in the washing machine. Walker's staff bought the story and [[https://www.huffpost.com/entry/scott-walker-prank-caller_n_827148 put the call through to him]].

* ''Magazine/PrivateEye'''s owner and longtime editor Peter Cook was a master of this trope. His finest hour was leading a raid on the ''Mirror'' offices at a time when Maxwell had tried to force the magazine off the newsstands (and succeeded with WH Smith, a large British newsagents chain). He and some cohorts, including current editor Ian Hislop, convinced the doorman and security at the ''Mirror'' offices that they were there to see Robert Maxwell. They used this to vandalize Maxwell's office, steal the master copy of a planned spoof Not Private Eye smear-job piece Maxwell had been producing (they had previously sent the journalists involved with the project a case of whisky, with predictable results), order a champagne lunch to be delivered at Maxwell's expense, and, finally, very drunk, phoning Maxwell personally in New York and saying "guess where we are".

** Life Guards are usually taught that, if the person in duress is a child, try and send the parent of the child to call emergency services. First, the parent is probably panicking and this isn't helping you or the child any, and a 911 operator is trained to talk the parent. Second, the parent knows the child's medical history better than anyone else on the pool. Third, it keeps the distracted parent from further panic as what's about to happen is [[UsefulNotes/CPRCleanPrettyReliable not gonna be pretty.]] For added bonus, to get the rest of the crowd on board, order someone else to go to the gate and flag down the ambulance and possibly designate a third person to be a message runner between the parent and you.

** This story may be very old indeed. A variation is also told of the Mullah Nasruddin--the Sufi [[UsefulNotes/{{Islam}} Muslim]] [[TheTrickster trickster]], who goes by the name Juha in Arab countries--involving donkeys carrying loads of hay across a border. Every day Nasruddin cheerfully admits to the border guard that he is "smuggling", but refuses to elaborate. The border guard never finds anything hidden in the hay. Years later, when both of them are retired, Nasruddin confesses to the guard that he was, of course, smuggling donkeys.

* Emergency procedures in life-or-death situations actually take advantage of this, to allow people to do crucial things even if they're just civilian bystanders. First, it avoids the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bystander_effect bystander effect]], where individuals might be reluctant to assist because they think someone else ought to do it; [[UsefulNotes/CPRCleanPrettyReliable CPR classes]], for instance, teach students not to yell general instructions ("Would someone call an ambulance?") but point to specific people and give them instructions ("You, in the blue dress, call an ambulance!"). Second, it ensures a proper division of labor and prevents too many people trying to do the same thing or calling for help. Third, it ensures that someone is actually ''in charge'' of the emergency, even before the trained help arrives. All told, using human psychology to make people think that you ''are'' the trained help is a good way to take charge of the situation (and for those first few minutes, you really are the help there is).
** Life Guards are usually taught that, if the person in duress is a child, try and send the parent of call. First, the parent is probably panicing and this isn't helping you or the child any, and a 911 operator is trained to talk the parent. Second, the parent knows the child's medical history better than anyone else on the pool, third, it keeps the distracted from further panic as what's about to happen is [[UsefulNotes/CPRCleanPrettyReliable not gonna be pretty.]] For added bonus, to get the rest of the crowd on board, order someone else to go to the gate and flag down the ambulance and possibly designate a third person to be a message runner between the parent and the you.

* An early 20th-century Prussian town fell victim to a famous variety of this prank, precisely because the Prussian aristocracy was one of the most militaristic in Europe and had essentially trained the populace to think that anything military was official. A con artist [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Voigt con artist dressed in the uniform of a German army captain]] and claimed to be an "inspector" In less than an hour, he ordered eleven soldiers to follow him, ordered the local police to stop any phone calls to Berlin for the next hour, arrested the mayor and the treasurer on "suspicions of crooked bookkeeping", and confiscated the entire city treasury. Nobody questioned him; the closest anyone came to checking his credentials was satisfied when he gave them a receipt for the confiscated treasury, using a fake name. He then simply walked away and was arrested 13 days later, only because he bragged about it to a former cellmate. Kaiser Wilhelm II found it ActuallyPrettyFunny and [[RefugeInAudacity pardoned the guy]].

* Prior to the 2017 Presidential Inauguration, Fox News host Tucker Carlson interviewed a man going by the name "Dom Tullipso" (he insisted it be pronounced "tu-yipp-so") who claimed to be a protestor who was being paid to cause violence at the event. Carlson asked Tullipso why he had provided no ID or proof that his organization was even real, to which Tullipso responded that he didn't need to, as simply claiming to be a paid protestor with no proof had gotten him ''multiple'' appearances in various media outlets, in which he had claimed to support "our national heroes like Peyton Manning" and demanded the Roswell records be declassified. ''And he was still booked.''

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/300_million_yen_robbery Japan's biggest bank robbery]] was pulled off in this way in 1968. Four employees of the Nihon Shintaku Bank were assigned to deliver approximately 300 million yen from their branch to the local Toshiba factory, to be used as a cash bonus for the factory workers. A uniformed police officer on a motorcycle approached and stopped the cash transport vehicle, notifying them that their branch manager's house had been blown up and that there was a bomb threat against the cash transport as well. The four men exited the vehicle while the policeman crawled underneath the car to find the bomb. Seconds later, smoke billowed from under the vehicle, the policeman rolled back out, and shouted that it was about to blow. While the four men ran for cover, the "cop" jumped into the driver's seat and made off with the money. The supposed "bomb" turned out to be a road flare the thief set off while under the car. The thief nor the money were ever located.

* A 19th-century Prussian town fell victim to a famous variety of this prank, precisely because the Prussian aristocracy was one of the most militaristic in Europe and had essentially trained the populace to think that anything military was official. A con artist [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Voigt con artist dressed in the uniform of a German army captain]] and claimed to be an "inspector" In less than an hour, he ordered eleven soldiers to follow him, ordered the local police to stop any phone calls to Berlin for the next hour, arrested the mayor and the treasurer on "suspicions of crooked bookkeeping", and confiscated the entire city treasury. Nobody questioned him; the closest anyone came to checking his credentials was satisfied when he gave them a receipt for the confiscated treasury, using a fake name. He then simply walked away and was arrested 13 days later, only because he bragged about it to a former cellmate. Kaiser Wilhelm II found it ActuallyPrettyFunny and [[RefugeInAudacity pardoned the guy]].

*** Possibly a dig at the fact that Jackson Pollock's "art" is indistinguishable from a used dropcloth and is still somehow worth millions.

* Emergency procedures in life-or-death situations actually take advantage of this, to allow people to do crucial things even if they're just civilian bystanders. First, it avoids the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bystander_effect bystander effect]], where individuals might be reluctant to assist because they think someone else ought to do it; [[UsefulNotes/CPRCleanPrettyReliable CPR classes]], for instance, teach students not to yell general instructions ("Would someone call an ambulance?") but point to specific people and give them instructions ("You, in the blue dress, call an ambulance!"). Second, it ensures a proper division of labor and prevents too many people trying to do the same thing or calling for help. Third, it ensures that someone is actually ''in charge'' of the emergency, even before the trained help arrives. All told, using human psychology to make you think that you ''are'' the trained help is a good way to take charge of the situation (and for those first few minutes, you really are the help there is).

* Frank Abagnale, the notorious con artist and inspiration for the protagonist of ''Film/CatchMeIfYouCan'', used this to pull off many of his cons. One instance in particular stands out, in which he purchased a security guard's uniform and stood at a bank's overnight depository, telling patrons that the depository was broken but he would be more than happy to secure their money. According to Website/IMDb, the filmmakers wanted to include this scam in the movie, but during filming, people came up to Creator/LeonardoDiCaprio in costume and [[TruthInTelevision tried to give him their money]]. The trick was effective enough to also be featured in Creator/NeilGaiman's ''Literature/AmericanGods'' and in an episode of ''Series/{{Hustle}}''.
* A 19th century Prussian town fell victim to a famous variety of this prank, precisely because the Prussian aristocracy was one of the most militaristic in Europe and had essentially trained the populace to think that anything military was official. A con artist [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Voigt con artist dressed in the uniform of a German army captain]] and claimed to be an "inspector" In less than an hour, he ordered eleven soldiers to follow him, ordered the local police to stop any phone calls to Berlin for the next hour, arrested the mayor and the treasurer on "suspicions of crooked bookkeeping", and confiscated the entire city treasury. Nobody questioned him; the closest anyone came to checking his credentials was satisfied when he gave them a receipt for the confiscated treasury, using a fake name. He then simply walked away, and was arrested 13 days later, only because he bragged about it to a former cellmate. Kaiser Wilhelm II found it ActuallyPrettyFunny and [[RefugeInAudacity pardoned the guy]].

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/300_million_yen_robbery Japan's biggest bank robbery]] was pulled off in this way in 1968. Four employees of the Nihon Shintaku Bank were assigned to deliver approximately 300 million yen from their branch to the local Toshiba factory, to be used as cash bonus for the factory workers. A uniformed police officer on a motorcycle approached and stopped the cash transport vehicle, notifying them that their branch manager's house had been blown up and that there was a bomb threat against the cash transport as well. The four men exited the vehicle while the policeman crawled underneath the car to find the bomb. Seconds later, smoke billowed from under the vehicle, the policeman rolled back out, and shouted that it was about to blow. While the four men ran for cover, the "cop" jumped into the driver's seat and made off with the money. The supposed "bomb" turned out to be a road flare the thief set off while under the car. Neither the thief nor the money were ever located.
* Australian comedy show ''Series/TheChasersWarOnEverything'' did this to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chaser_APEC_pranks get to within meters of the hotel]] where UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush was staying in Sydney for the 2007 APEC meeting. They did it by renting a limousine, sticking miniature Canadian flags on it, and [[TheGuardsMustBeCrazy driving straight through a AU $4,000,000 security perimeter]]. Their security passes were obviously fake (with things like "JOKE" written on them), but nobody checked them. They (and apparently Creator/TheABC and [[OurLawyersAdvisedThisTrope the ABC's lawyers]]) were convinced that someone would stop them at some point. They only got caught right at the entrance of the hotel, when out of amazement at how far they got, Chas stepped out of the limousine -- in full costume as UsefulNotes/OsamaBinLaden. The Chasers [[http://youtu.be/NvH3YQGQwLM recount the incident here]], and were particularly amused by the fact that even after "Bin Laden" had been apprehended, the police seemed more interested in the ''other'' guys in the motorcade.

* In October 2010, a dam in Hungary burst, spilling red toxic sludge across the countryside and laying waste to a village. [[http://jalopnik.com/5663773/how-we-helped-hungarys-toxic-sludge-victims One man]] whose house was spared happened to own a Ford Transit fire truck, which he loaded up with food and water to help the victims. He commented that getting through the check points was easy because the authorities assumed he was with the fire department.

* In March 1986, eleven students from Harvey Mudd College showed up on the Caltech campus and left with a [[UsefulNotes/FrancoPrussianWar century-old]], 1.7 ton cannon. In broad daylight. They posed as a construction crew and gave multiple different stories to any people who asked, but the real trick was planting people whose job was to look like normal students who didn't think anything was wrong. Twenty years later, MIT repeated the trick by posing as [[{{Pun}} Howe & Ser]] Moving Company.

* Benjamin Franklin himself essentially employed this to ensure the American Revolution a good general to instruct them in how to fight. After meeting the Prussian captain Von Stueben in Paris, and concerned that Congress would not accept a "mere captain," Franklin "doctored" Von Stueben's resume to take along and show Washington a lengthy and impressive career as a former lieutenant general in the Prussian army.

* Legendary electric guitarist Les Paul was unable to get any record exectutives to sign him, until one day he was headed home from yet another unsucessful interview and saw workmen erecting a sign for the newly formed Capitol Records. Paul waited until they were distracted, then walked into the building backwards, figuring that if anyone stopped him, he'd say he was on his way out. He managed to make his way into the offices, and convinced an A&R man to listen to his recordings, upon which the man wrote out a contract on the spot.

* Youtube prankster WebVideo/RemiGaillard managed to enter the Final of the French Cup by simply [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TaecFvNiqo using a fake jersey of the winning team]], with no one ever questioning him, even using simple sneakers instead of professional shoes. He touched the cup, gave interviews, shook hands with then president Chirac, and even signed autographs.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/300_million_yen_robbery Japan's biggest bank robbery]] was pulled off in this way in 1968. Four employees of the Nihon Shintaku Bank were assigned to deliver approximately 300 million yen from their branch to the local Toshiba factory, to be used as cash bonus for the factory workers. A uniformed police officer on a motorcycle approached and stopped the cash transport vehicle, notifying them that their branch manager's house had been blown up and that there was a bomb threat against the cash transport as well. The four men exited the vehicle while the policeman crawled underneath the car to find the bomb. Seconds later, smoke billowed from under the vehicle, the policeman rolled back out, and shouted that it was about to blow. While the four men ran for cover, the "cop" jumped into the driver's seat and made off with the money. Neither the thief nor the money were ever located.

* In CPR and lifesaving classes, students are taught to use this for good, because individuals may be reluctant to assist in an emergency due to the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bystander_effect bystander effect]]. For example, a rescuer should address a specific person (e.g. "you, the lady in the blue dress") when asking for someone to call for an ambulance, instead of a general request ("Would someone call an ambulance?"). Conversely, this also works to safeguard against a half-dozen emergency calls being placed and potentially delaying help as operators work to deal with the influx.
** A related instruction given in self-defense courses is to never yell "Help!" because of the chance that some people will be less likely to respond if there is a threat of danger. Instead, when threatened, you should yell "Fire!", and/or flip a fire or car alarm, DontTryThisAtHome unless it's life or death, because that will attract more people. (Within reason, obviously--if there are police/security guards within earshot, then "Help" is better because it's more likely to bring professional assistance, who aren't impeded by curious on-lookers. If there are so many people that yelling "Fire" may cause a dangerous panic, then, of course, you should yell "Help!" instead.)
** Depending on where you live, have a look at emergency instructions where you work and you're likely to find that you're actually supposed to accept this in emergency. Many such instructions state that until actual emergency personnel arrives, the evacuation etc. are coordinated by "the appointed personnel, managers, directors, or... the most composed and decisive person". Notice the last part. It often even doesn't require that person to be an employee. Basically, panic and chaos tend to be so destructive in emergencies that almost anyone in charge is better than noone, even if the only authority they hold is their ability to actually take control and look like they know what they are doing. Even if they don't, it's less likely to be fatal than letting panic grow.
* Frank Abagnale, the notorious con artist the book and film ''Film/CatchMeIfYouCan'' are based on, used this to pull off many of his cons. In one instance, he purchased a security guard's uniform and stood at a bank's overnight depository, telling patrons who pulled up to make their deposits that the depository was broken but that he would be more than happy to secure their money. According to Website/IMDb, they planned to include the same scam in the movie, but, during filming, people came up to Creator/LeonardoDiCaprio in costume and [[TruthInTelevision tried to give him their money]].
** The trick was featured in Creator/NeilGaiman's ''Literature/AmericanGods'' and in an episode of ''Hustle''. Danny would've gotten more if he hadn't started opening accounts for people.
* Germany was united in the 19th century by the Prussians, whose aristocracy was arguably the most militaristic in Europe. Their obsession with things military spread across the country. At one point, a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Voigt con artist dressed in the uniform of a German army captain]] entered a good-sized town claiming to be an "inspector". In less than an hour, he ordered ''four grenadiers, a sergeant, and six other soldiers'' to follow him (of whom no one questioned his authority), ordered ''the local police'' to stop any phone calls to Berlin for the next hour, arrested the mayor and the treasurer for "suspicions of crooked bookkeeping", and ''confiscated the entire city treasury''. The closest thing to "checking his credentials" was him ''giving a receipt'' for the confiscated treasury, using a fake name. Then he simply walked away, and was arrested 13 days later ''only because a former cell mate whom he told about his plans told this to the police''. [[RefugeInAudacity He was later pardoned by Kaiser Wilhelm II]], who found it ActuallyPrettyFunny. There is at least one play and three movies made about this.
* [[AndThatsTerrible A particularly heinous]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strip_search_prank_call_scam prank]] involving [[NoodleImplements [=McDonald's=], a master manipulator, and a telephone.]]
** [[RippedFromTheHeadlines This story has been adapted twice]], first for an episode of ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'', then a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compliance_(film) 2012 movie]].
** Similarly, one man managed to convince at least one person to [[http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/weblog/permalink/rectal_exam_prank_caller/ perform a rectal exam]] this way. Keeping a straight face must have been torture for everyone with a sense of humor.
* In 1948, a Japanese male in uniform entered the Teikoku Imperial Bank and, using this trope, managed to get the entire bank staff to swallow poison. In unison. Detailed in the book ''Flowering of the Bamboo'' by William Triplett and is recounted by Tiger Tanaka to Literature/JamesBond in the novel ''Literature/YouOnlyLiveTwice''.
* On December 10, 1968, four employees of the Nihon Shintaku Bank were assigned to deliver approximately 300 million yen from their branch to the local Toshiba factory, to be used as cash bonus for the factory workers. A uniformed police officer on a motorcycle approached and stopped the cash transport vehicle, notifying them that their branch manager's house had been blown up and that there was a bomb threat against the cash transport as well. The four men exited the vehicle while the policeman crawled underneath the car to find the bomb. Seconds later, smoke billowed from under the vehicle, the policeman rolled back out, and shouted that it was about to blow. While the four men ran for cover, the "cop" jumped into the driver's seat and made off with the money. Neither the false policeman/thief nor the money has been definitively located. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/300_million_yen_robbery More on the Other Wiki]].
* ''Series/TheChasersWarOnEverything'' and their controversial APEC stunt: they rented a limousine, stuck miniature Canadian flags on it, [[TheGuardsMustBeCrazy and marched clean through]] [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome a AU $4,000,000 security perimeter]]. It may be found in all its glory [[http://youtu.be/NvH3YQGQwLM here]].
** To go into more detail: The stunt was approved by Creator/TheABC's lawyers because they assumed the fake motorcade would be stopped and turned around at the first checkpoint; none of the team could believe they got as far as they got. They had fake security passes that said "joke", "Insecurity", and "It's pretty obvious this isn't a real pass" and got within meters of the hotel where UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush was staying. They were only caught when, realizing they were not going to be stopped by the police, they tried to turn around and Chas got out of the car ''dressed as UsefulNotes/OsamaBinLaden''. And, even then, they left Chas alone for a while and instead converged to arrest the one not dressed as bin Laden, as remarked on by The Chasers themselves.
** [[RefugeInAudacity The bigger the lie, the easier it is to believe]]; Julian Morrow had done a number of pranks on a smaller scale and often managed to fool members of the public, but never the employees of whichever establishment or organization he claimed to work for.
* On 2 July 2000, 15 men dressed in senior officers' uniforms driving civilian jeeps painted up to look like military vehicles entered a Malaysian army base using this method. They apparently convinced the base armory personnel to hand over more than 100 assault rifles and grenade launchers to them and left before anyone realized something was wrong. See [[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/818403.stm BBC News]].

* "I once had a fellow network geek challenge me to try to bring down his newly-installed network. He had just installed a powerful and expensive firewall router and was convinced that I couldn't get to a test server he added to his network just for me to try to access. After a few attempts to hack in over the Internet, I saw that I wasn't going to get anywhere that way. So I jumped in my car and drove to his office, having first outfitted myself in a techy-looking jumpsuit and an ancient ID badge I just happened to have in my sock drawer. I smiled sweetly at the receptionist and walked right by my friend's office (I noticed he was smugly monitoring incoming IP traffic using some neato packet-sniffing program) to his new server. [[CuttingTheKnot I quickly pulled the wires out of the back of his precious server, picked it up, and walked out the door]]. The receptionist was too busy trying to figure out why her e-mail wasn't working to notice me as I whisked by her carrying the 65-pound server box."--From the [=CompTIA=] A+ Certification All-in-One Exam Guide by Michael Meyers.
* An Englishman named Derek Williams managed to [[http://www.theguardian.com/football/2008/jul/17/mexico impersonate Swedish football manager Sven-Göran Eriksson, who at the time trained the Mexico national football team]], fooling every manager, player, and member of the press he encountered. Nobody discovered the deception until the Mexican football federation themselves released a statement later in the day.
** Parodied by Ant and Dec in the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4NzmMycZIM video]] to their novelty World Cup tie-in single.

* [[{{ComicStrip/Dilbert}} Scott Adams]] said that he'd tell women he was interested in that he was an expert on handwriting analysis. He'd get them to write their name and ask them to write the things they liked about him. Once they were in the mindset of thinking appreciative things about him, some would include a phone number.
** Not the only time Adams has taken advantage of this tendency, either. Wearing only a toupée and a fake mustache as a disguise and peddled as a consultant by Logitech's co-founder, he got into a high-level meeting at the company and spouted a wide load of nonsense. Everyone nodded along and he succeeded in getting them to create a completely-meaningless mission statement before the hoax was revealed.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phishing Phishing]]. By far the biggest reason why any online service tells you that representatives will ''never'' ask for your password.
** Working at a call-in help desk, you have to actively ''dissuade'' people from giving you everything from their password to their SSN. Telling them that you don't ask for security reasons only encourages them to offer it.
** This even happens with jobs where you call outward, like when a research company is contracted by a bank or an insurance company. Even with a blocked caller ID number (as is standard with companies using a dialer system to call outward), they still assume you're the right people just because you say you are and you have a professional tone and pacing (saying "Hello, my name is <blank> calling on behalf of <blank>, may I please speak with <blank>" works wonders), go along with pretty much any questions you have as long as you don't start questioning the questions, then start spilling information that you don't even ''ask'' for, like account numbers.
** Taxi dispatch works much the same way. One will often have to stop people mid-credit-card-number to tell them that looking up a taxicab doesn't work that way and that, even if it did, the dispatcher can't access that information, please do not give it to them!

* The story of Pacific Tech's [[http://www.nucalc.com/Story/ Graphing Calculator]], in which a couple of ex-contractors managed to get Apple to release their software by pretending they still worked there. One of the best examples from the article: "[Greg] told his manager that he would start reporting to me. She didn't ask who I was and let him keep his office and badge. In turn, I told people that I was reporting to him. Since that left no managers in the loop, we had no meetings and could be extremely productive."
* Many of Joey Skaggs' greatest pranks are predicated on these. The best of these was The Solomon Project, where Skaggs (as Dr. Joseph Bonuso) got on CNN to shill a computer that could replace judges. Even better, though, was the fact that ''this was the fifth time Skaggs had snowed CNN this way''.
** A similar trick was pulled on HLN by Jon Hedren, a comedian posing as a political analyst [[https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/oct/01/edward-snowden-edward-scissorhands-comedian-hijacks-slot-us-news-jon-hendren-hln offering insight on Edward Snowden]] - but instead discussing Film/EdwardScissorhands.

** He also managed to escape a POW camp by simply walking out.