Revenge is just a Web site away

Put a hex on your ex. Send shrink-wrapped dog poop to your boss. Tell a co-worker he's like an infection that can't be cured, complete with a flushing-toilet sound effect.

Revenge is as easy as a click on a computer mouse. It's as sweet as the evil Valentine you can e-mail anonymously, or the pre-melted chocolates you can order off the Web.

On the Internet, vengeance is booming. Anonymous computer revenge is turning into the modern version of the prank phone call, which # 69 and Caller ID have all but erased.

In this area, famous for both its technology and passive-aggressiveness, such revenge could prove to be as popular as leaving anonymous complaints on reporters' voice mail. In other words, quite popular. Not that we're complaining.

So go to www.pinstruck.com, where you can put an e-mail voodoo curse on anyone, telling a special someone that "it won't wash off" or even "I love you," which seems vaguely threatening when paired with a bearded pinned voodoo doll with a name tag on it.

As of last week, , 41,844 curses had been sent over e-mail through the site, including several that have wormed their way through companies such as Amazon and Microsoft. "You know you like it," is the most popular curse.

Be warned: When cursed, people can get upset or mad, especially because the curser is anonymous. At the end of a long day, it can be disconcerting to open up your e-mail and see "this is the end of you." Trust us.

"People can get pretty freaked out by it," said Tyson Liotta, who designed the site.

Several other Web sites let you send insulting cards through e-mail, featuring songs such as "Bohemian Rhapsody" and sound effects such as a swearing Donald Duck.

Or send poop to show you care. Josh Fagan and a fellow paramedic north of Dallas run a site, www.Crap-O-Gram.com, that mails everything from $12 budget-sized dog poop to $100 elephant poop in a basket with a bow. Customers have sent the little bundles to members of Congress, to governors, to ex-boyfriends and to friends as jokes. Fagan says he won't reveal senders, no matter how much money he's offered.

"I think it's pretty cool, actually," Fagan said. "It's just an easy way to get revenge on somebody. It doesn't really harm anybody."

Some of the online revenge is mean. Men post naked pictures of their ex-girlfriends, women post the names of men who have done them wrong.

"It can be taken to extremes," said Robert Bies, a Georgetown University associate professor who has studied revenge. He also grew up in Seattle. "People can be hurt. People can be caught."

Obviously, some of this stuff could get people in a lot of trouble. Say, jail or a lawsuit, for instance.

At one site, www.getrevenge.com, people ask for help in the Get Revenge Forum. One woman wanted revenge on her mean boss at Abercrombie & Fitch. Others asked for help getting back at a father-in-law's girlfriend or a security guard. Anger-management classes, anyone?

One company, Revenge-R-Us, makes a rather ominous promise to deliver mild, moderate or heavy intensity to the target of your choice, as long as you provide the company with personal data such as the target's home address and Social Security number. It's anonymous, the company says, and free. "We enjoy making the jerks in the world miserable - consider it an Internet public service!"

"Avengers for hire?" said Tom Tripp, an associate professor of management at the Washington State University branch in Vancouver, Wash., who is working on a book with Bies on workplace revenge. "That's really interesting. I'd like to see how that takes off."

Bies compared online revenge to having an electronic bodyguard against a playground bully. He said most of the time, it's a way of coping with a difficult situation - an unpleasant boss, for instance.

"This is not often the Ted Bundy weird psychopath doing this," Bies said. "No. The reality is people who get even are people who feel they got a raw deal."

In some cases, revenge can be a good thing, especially when something positive comes out of it, or a bully learns a lesson, Tripp said.

But with anonymous revenge, it's tough to learn a thing. Just because you receive a pamphlet on "Hair Club for Men" that you didn't order, doesn't mean you'll stop leaving your Tupperware dishes on a co-worker's desk.

And with some of these Web sites, the sender will get a little gift as well - junk e-mail, advertisements, ways to make big money quick. There is a price for revenge, with electronic strings attached - and sometimes, that's more annoying than the person who annoyed you in the first place.

Kim Barker's phone message number is 206-464-2255. Her e-mail address is kbarker@seattletimes.co.