Most people spend a lot of time in their email inbox, making it a good target for pranks. Let's look at some free email pranks that you can enjoy playing on your friends.

While these are mostly harmless, don't forget that some people might not take kindly to pranks. Think twice before using any of them, especially if their effects might last for a while.

1. Send the Entire Dictionary as a Text File

Most email clients have a powerful search engine that can even search inside attachments. Thus, sending the dictionary as a text file is a fun way to play an email prank. When your friend searches for any word, your email containing that file will come up.

It's a subtle effect that they might not notice at first, which makes it a perfect prank. Since you probably don't have a text copy of the dictionary sitting around, you can grab a massive list of English words from a page on the University of Michigan's site.

You can copy and paste the entire content of that into an email, but this will be too obvious. To make it more subtle, press Ctrl + S on that page to save the list as a text file, then attach that to an otherwise inconspicuous email. If possible, it's worth double-checking to make sure that the email service your friend uses searches inside attachments, or this won't work.

Dictionary Email Prank

If you want to amp this up a bit, include the attachment with a funny subject line, so the person sees that in the search results every time.

2. Tweak a Coworker's Signature

Your email signature is a useful tool to let people know who you are and provide contact information. If you have a coworker who doesn't always lock their computer, wait for them to step away and then jump into their email account.

Once inside, change something small about their signature so it's not totally obvious (nor harmful), and let the laughs ensue. You might add a silly title (such as "Chief Lollygagging Officer"), insert a silly award (like "Madison Elementary School Spelling Bee Champion"), or change the font of their signature to something stupid like Comic Sans.

Just don't do anything that will get them (and you) in trouble!

3. Send an Anonymous Joke Email

Send Anonymous Email Prank

Services like SendAnonymousEmail let you send an email to anyone from a fake address. You can use this to "inform" a coworker that they're required to come as a clown for tomorrow's office party, pretend to be someone they came across on a dating site, or other such shenanigans.

Anything you can imagine to mess with a friend via email can come to life thanks to this service. Just enter the recipient's email and a "from" address, along with a subject and message. The site states that you should not use it for abuse or anything illegal, so be careful what you send here.

4. Sign Them Up for Annoying Email Subscriptions

Nobody likes junk emails in their inbox, so why not prank your friend by signing them up for silly email newsletter listings?

You might sign them up for Cat Faeries, which sends pictures of cats in every issue. If you want to be really annoying, consider signing them up for any newsletter that sends emails all the time, like a political campaign. And for maximum rage, try a service like MailBait, which lets you sign an email address up for dozens of subscriptions at once.

The Best Email Pranks to Annoy Your Friends

Now you have plenty of ways to mess with your friends or coworkers via email. While email pranks can be funny, you shouldn't use them without thinking. Hopefully, people will take them in good fun, but a few quick laughs aren't worth ruining a friendship over.

If you have more people to prank, you're not limited to just email. There are plenty of websites and apps that are full of prank material.

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