Sites for those you hate

Let’s just call her Jane. Young, well-bred and downright gorgeous, she is the type that you would love to have as a secretary. In fact, that was her former job. Just recently, she got fired by a boss who was interested more in her body than her mind.

That made Jane really mad. She wanted to get even. But how?

Asking us for help, we pointed her to the Internet. There, we told her, she could get back at her estranged boss without being traced. And she could turn her anger into pure, unrestrained fun.

VirtualInsults.com, a website based in the United States, allows people to insult anyone anywhere by sending an electronic greeting card. Its collection of demeaning cards is steadily growing, and if you visit the site today, you can send insulting hi’s and hello’s to that professor who flunked you in college or that monster of a mother-in-law you have who derives satisfaction from telling your neighbors that you’re a good-for-nothing wimp.

The site sells itself as a place "where EVERYDAY is April Fools’ Day." Indeed, you can make a fool of anyone through the cards available and that target of yours wouldn’t even know you’re the one who’s laughing behind his back.

Another US-based site we recommended to Jane was pinstruck.com. This is a virtual world of voodoo where she can play a witch and send virtual curses to her former boss.

All Jane did was enter her target’s e-mail address and select one of several cryptic messages, such as "Look what you’ve become," or "It’s not over yet." She picked the latter and hit the "send" button. Her boss then got an e-mail invitation to visit pinstruck.com and there he found a strange wooden box which, when he clicked open, revealed a grotesque voodoo doll with his name pinned on its chest, together with the curse Jane selected.

The beauty of the site was that Jane could find out whether her boss had bought her trick or not. When she finally received a message informing her that her boss had visited pinstruck.com, Jane let out a big laugh.

The site, however, claims that it doesn’t believe in voodoo magic, and that its curses are "for entertainment use only."

Nonetheless, for angry people like Jane, just the thought of their favorite enemies’ reaction to the sight of the voodoo doll was enough to brighten their day. Obviously, all they need was an outlet for their hatred.