Who's My Crush? -- Prologue

            Browsing through his inbox, he couldn’t imagine a world without the internet or e-mail.  The instant access to information made work much easier, and the ability to communicate directly with anyone worldwide made surface mail and even telephones, to an extent, obsolete.  There were drawbacks, of course, and one of the most frustrating was the seemingly endless amount of junk mail that found its way into mailboxes everywhere.  Out of five new messages in his new mail folder, four of them were marked by his computer as probable spam.

            He deleted the first three without a second thought – subject lines like “Want to be bigger?” and “Prescription Viagra” were all too easy to spot.  As his pointer moved across the screen to delete the final e-mail, he paused, studying the subject of the message.

            WHO IS YOUR CRUSH?

            He knew that junk mail often used enticing subjects to tempt people into opening the message, but this one seemed different.  Against his better judgment, he clicked the link to open the letter.

                        chris@email.net:

Someone you know has a crush on you!  This is not junk

mail or a joke – someone you know has requested that this

message be sent to YOU!

                        To find out who has a crush on you, visit our web site at:

                                    www.whosmycrush.org/uid=39489384

                        Good luck – we sincerely hope you find your crush!

                        The Staff of Who’s My Crush

            He copied and pasted the web address into his browser and clicked the go button.   Once the site had loaded completely, he started reading intently.

Welcome to Who’s My Crush!  You’re here because someone you know wants to reveal their crush on you.  Below, there are five empty input fields.  Type in the e-mail addresses of anyone you think might have a crush on you.  If you correctly match the e-mail address submitted by your crush, you will BOTH be notified immediately.  For every five e-mail addresses you enter, we’ll give you a new clue about your secret crush’s identity.  To get you started, here is a free clue about your crush:

Your crush is a FEMALE and is between 15 and 25 years old.

            Some clue, he thought.  That could be almost anyone.  He considered the possibilities and started entering e-mail addresses.

            He started with the person he most wanted it to be and entered four more people that were decent candidates.  After double-checking the spelling on the addresses, he clicked the submit button and awaited his promised clue. 

Chris never imagined what a single click of the mouse could set in motion.