Country superstar Taylor Swift had a "Biggest Fan" contest going through Boston's Kiss 108 FM radio station, where fans could vote themselves to the top of the leader board for a chance to meet their favorite, but everything was ruined when a 39-year old from 4chan's forums won out over hundreds of teen girls eager to meet their idol.
The massive prank caused the station to pull the contest, Kiss 108 FM posting a public apology on their site for what had happened.
"Disappointingly, we have determined that the integrity of the 'Taylor Swift's Biggest Fan' contest has been compromised. In accordance with our contest rules, effective immediately, the contest has been terminated. We apologize to all of our loyal listeners who have participated," the station wrote.
The 4chan "winner" was known as Charles Z, and according to The Inquisitr, a user on 4chan's /b/ forums used an automated voting script to rig the contest and get him to the top of the leader board, with more than 500 users at different computers simultaneously voting automatically for the prankster.
Kiss 108 FM did take some of the flack for the incident, as on their FAQ page, they had encouraged people to vote for their choice winners every 24 hours, opening up the chance of easy crash voting. The "real" winner of the Kiss 108 FM contest would have scored the chance to meet Swift, take a photo with her, and attend her show at Gillette Stadium on July 27.
This is the second time in the past 11 months that 4chan has messed with Taylor Swift's fan contests, The Daily Dot reports, as the imageboard and forum previously hijacked a contest to get textbook company Chegg to donate $10,000 to a school of their choice's music department, as well as an opportunity for Swift to perform at the school.
The leading school that 4chan cheekily picked? Boston's Horace Mann School for the Deaf.
"I get the humor but those deaf kids are going to f*****g love it! Most deaf can hear a certain degree with residual hearing, hearing aids and CI's," one user commented at the time. "Not to mention those deaf kids who are profoundly deaf and don't wear any assistive (sp) devices will enjoy the visual stimulation of the show."
