One of the best online pranksters of all time is hanging up his keyboard

James Linton has spent the better part of 2017 e-pranking global figures. Now, after a lazy slip-up, he’s calling it quits.

James Linton — better known by his alias, @Sinon_Reborn — has spent the better part of 2017 e-pranking global figures. Now, after a lazy slip-up, he’s calling it quits.

One of the best online pranksters of all time is hanging up his keyboard

By creating a simple email hoax, he convinced some of the world’s most high-profile officials, celebs, and CEOs that they were talking to known associates — and he posted the conversations online for the world to see.

Hacking we can get behind

A self-proclaimed “lazy anarchist,” @Sinon_Reborn found success by simply guessing the actual emails of his targets.

From pretending to be asshat Sheriff David Clarke asking Ann Coulter to proofread an article he “wrote” on immigration, to making Kevin Spacey believe he was in a friendly conversation with Hugh Jackman, this guy caused mayhem.

His pranks are even responsible for fanning the flames of the notorious Anthony Scaramucci meltdown (he posed as Reince Priebus, and got into an email sparring sesh with the former White House Communications Director).

Like all good things, this too had to come to an end

By August of this year, Linton was managing over 150 email accounts, until he made a careless mistake that blew his whole operation wide open.

The Daily Mail exposed him after he created a GoFundMe page to bankroll (or better yet, prankroll), his obsession, revealing too much of his personal info in the process.

While he does believe his pranks served as “small wins for the average human,” Linton admits he finally understands the truth to the phrase, “You live by the sword, and you die by the sword.”

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