I’ve been getting random IM’s from people I do not know.

Last April 28:

(6:54:23 AM) unusualsalmon: DEUS VULT!
(6:54:33 AM) me: huh?
(6:55:27 AM) unusualsalmon: Ohh it’s cool, I didn’t wanna know anyways.
(6:56:13 AM) unusualsalmon: You IMed me. Haha
(6:56:18 AM) me: i’m sorry, you don’t seem to be on my friends list…
(6:56:59 AM) unusualsalmon: Lmao, but see you just IMed me and said “BEES”
(6:57:09 AM) me: really?
(6:57:16 AM) me: thats weird.
(6:57:43 AM) me: i know i didn’t…
(6:57:46 AM) me: hehe..
(6:58:02 AM) unusualsalmon: Hmmm, fuckin crazyyy. And I don’t know who you are.
(6:58:19 AM) me: uhh yeah same here!
(6:58:47 AM) unusualsalmon: Da fuck
(6:59:37 AM) me: Oh well. Must be some glitch or someone hacked into my account or something.
(7:00:01 AM) unusualsalmon: Mmm danng. Haha.

And just a few minutes ago:

(2:30:36 PM) grammaticalsalmon: I IMed you first. If I deny this later, I’m lying.
(2:31:18 PM) me: Ok
(2:32:11 PM) grammaticalsalmon: No.
(2:33:22 PM) me: so how many of you are there? i think i met your brother before. (trying to be funny)

I wasn’t going to let this whole random thing go, so of course I turned to Google to investigate. Here’s what turned up:

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Source: Nixie Pixel

When you were a kid and discovered the joys of call waiting and connecting calls, did you ever prank call two different people by dialing them both, connecting them together, and then simply listening in as they accused each other of calling? Hilarity usually ensued, as either they eventually came to the conclusion that they had been tricked, or one or the other got angry and slammed down their phone…

Today I was the victim of the digital equivalent, something called “Project Upstream;” a (harmless) bot system using AOL Instant Messenger that contacts two random people to engage in a completely random conversation. According to their website they are “an organization dedicated to promoting social ideals through the use of exciting new technology.
Project Upstream’s most well-known service is our swarm of robotic fish, which spontaneously connects AIM users to each other.”

What is a fish bot?
The friendly AIM bots have a countless number of screennames and have been seen as any of: (something)Salmon, (something)Trout, and (something)Coho. The opening message or “icebreaker” from these screennames varies, and the user screennames contacted appear to be gathered from LiveJournal, deviantART, Twitter, Xanga, and Digg. Messages sent may be altered in some way, such as being changed to piratespeak, old English, or changed to rainbow-colored fonts. The feeling you get when you receive that random IM is quite like being RickRoll’d.

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I wish I had known this before replying to grammaticalsalmon! I could have found out his real screen name and who he/she really is. Hahaha.  Interesting stuff.