I came across an interesting article in USA Today about how it’s really easy for miscreants to change the dates on documents abbreviating the New Year as “20.”
For instance, say your “free” offer “Ends 1/2/20.” Some hacker may be able to change the date to: “Ends 1/2/2021” or the like, by the simple expedient of adding a new “year” to the end of your abbreviated “20.” Now this joker will try to coerce “free” products from your company for the next twelve months.
This might be a bigger issue when handwriting the date on documents, but I’m sure some troublemakers will try to take advantage of this in other ways, and since I do not have that kind of criminal mind, the best I can do is provide a warning.
I don’t know if anyone experienced this problem in 1919. If memory serves me correctly, we probably had paper and pens back then, but I don’t think the Internet had ramped up yet. Imagine if some disgruntled legislator casually slipped in a “99” at the end of the date on the bill passing the 19th Amendment – (i.e., from “6/4/19” to “6/4/1999”) – women’s suffrage would have had a mighty setback. What if some prankster changed George Fenneman’s birth certificate to say he was born on “10/11/1939” – would he have ever gotten the job as the announcer on Groucho’s “You Bet Your Life” at the age of 11?
As you can see, unlimited mayhem may result if you’re not careful dating your documents to ensure that “2020” means “2020.” If you need help with this or any other vexing ad issues, just say the secret word, the duck will appear and you could be a winner.
