5:35PM Jess McGuire | George Noble-May, the man who decided that oysters just weren’t sexy enough and logically concluded they should be amped up with a nice shot of Viagra, is
devastated to discover that an email from Google congratulating him on being the hottest internet topic in the history of anything didn’t, in fact, come from ‘Google corporate’ but rather some cheeky funster intent on mischief.
On Sunday night National Nine News broadcast a report about a man who came up with an idea to lace Sydney Rock Oysters with Viagra and sell them as souped up aphrodisiacs.
George Noble-May, the Central Coast resident behind the project, told viewers that the story was “exploding” around the world, so much so that even Google had emailed congratulating him for having one of the internet’s hottest stories.
The email’s “from” field showed that it had been sent by “corporate@google.com”. The message read: “Congratulations! The Viagra oyster story is the fastest growing internet story since 9/11 with over 700,000 links in 24 hours.”
It was signed: “Google corporate” (sic).
Trouble is, the email is a hoax. Google knows that and has since informed him.
“We’re not in the habit of sending congratulatory emails to individuals whose stories receive a large number of hits on Google,” a Google Australia spokesman told smh.com.au in response to a query about the claim.
We’re just flabbergasted that the brains in Channel Nine news didn’t question it at all, although perhaps they were distracted by the important business of lining up a $44 million ‘investment’ with a Nigerian politician stricken with esophageal cancer.
Mr Noble-May was disappointed to hear about the hoax. Worse still, his computer has now been infected with a virus which was probably delivered when he opened the email.
“I’ve framed the bloody thing and put it up on the wall and now I’m trying to figure out where it came from, ” he said. “But I’ll tell you what, I’ve been accused of many things in my life but never of being stupid.”
Mr Noble-May, a marketing consultant, said he was “so thrilled” to receive the Google-gram on Saturday morning that he “instantly rang” Channel Nine reporter Heidi Couch. “Guess what I’ve received’,” he said.
….
Mr Noble-May said he had tried to contact the email sender at least three times, but without success.
“G’day from Downunder,” he wrote on Saturday soon after he read the Google-gram. “Thanks for the info. Amazing what the net can do. I’ll frame the email with pride. All the best to you and yours, George May.”
All he got back was what looked to be an automated response saying his email had been received.
“Obviously, I’m not dumb, if I’d knew there was anything wrong with it at that point I’d have gone ’shit I’m not going to put that on national television on Sunday night’.”
And yet… and yet…
On the upside, Google may well congratulate him on being a huge breaking story on the web yet, what with the hoax story no doubt destined to become a popular topic of conversation online.
Score!
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