Its all in the words !!! 8th march 2003, page 1

Hoax

Claim: Web site will reveal an "astounding" discovery to
the world on 8 March 2003.
Status: False.
Origins: 12 October 2002
was the launch date of www.8march2003.com, a mysterious site
detailing, in fanciful tabloid style, a tale about the
accidental discovery of an abandoned camera, the earth-shaking
(but unexplained) revelations disclosed by the development of
the film found within it, and stock conspiracy plot elements
involving hacked computers, tapped phones, and secret agents,
all related by an innocent chronicler of events now forced to
live his life on the run as he dodges bad guys and promises to
reveal something "astounding" to the world through his web
site on 8 March 2003.

What's was behind all this -- promotion for an upcoming film,
a genuine lunatic, or merely somebody who enjoys yanking
people's chains? The 8march2003.com domain name (and other
associated domain names) was registered through a proxy
service in order to prevent its being tracked back to someone
identifiable, so there wasn't much to go by other than what's
actually displayed on the site (although that hasn't stopped
some from engaging in a little Internet sleuthing).

The favorite guess -- based on the site's use of words such as
'story' and 'novel' (i.e., "That is why I have chosen to
reveal my story and warning in such a novel way"), the
enlarged first four letters of the word 'bookmark' (i.e.,
"Bookmark the appropriate site listed below"), and the
instructions for visitors to "read between the lines" (i.e.,
"There are those who believe it is a hoax - but perhaps that
is part of the plan - just read between the lines") -- was
that the intent of the site was to generate publicity for a
book of the conspiracy/thriller genre to be published next
March.

H = 8th letter in alphabet
M = For March

On 7 November, however, most of the speculation was ended when
the site's content was replaced with the following message:

Dear readers,

This site was originally posted as a piece of writing with
purposeful clues and discrepancies to indicate it's
fictitious nature leading up to a pre publicity campaign to
see how much interest it might generate. Quite honestly the
overwhelming response and attention was not expected, or at
least not so quickly. That was why the site was posted
several months ahead with the intention of it slowly
gathering momentum, leading up to the actual revealing date.

Most people have sent emails indicating that they enjoyed
the site and looked forward to finding out about the
potential release of a variety of things such as a new
movie, computer game, SLR camera, novel, camera film and the
list goes on.

There are some that have taken this site too seriously, and
it has been brought to my attention that innocent people
have been implicated as the creators of this site. I
therefore feel it is appropriate to make this announcement.
As many have pointed out, if the story was for real it would
have been shut down by now.

If you still wish to follow this event, please enjoy it as a
fictitious story leading up to what will be revealed on the
above mentioned date. If there is enough interest, the
original story may be re-posted as an optional link on this
page within the next few weeks.

Kind Regards,
HM
HM@8march2003.com
This was followed ten days later by an addendum:
Thank you for your overwhelming positive response. I have
posted some of the emails that I've received during the last
month for your viewing.
The purpose behind this site was to create intrigue,
fascination and interest leading up to what this event is
about. It has certainly achieved that objective. Once again,
apologies to anyone who took it too seriously.
Now that the nature of this campaign has been revealed,
please enjoy the adventure leading up to March 8 2003

[Edited on 7-3-2003 by The Real Deal]