Issue Date: September 23, 2007

Are you for real?

A website will make up convincing lies for you.

By Reed Tucker

"Truth is beautiful, without doubt; but so are lies," poet/philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson said. And with the exception of politicians, perhaps no one fibs as beautifully as Alibi Network, a 3-year-old service that provides elaborately constructed excuses for its clients.

"People get into sensitive situations where they don't necessarily want their friends and family to help them out, so we deal with it," says spokeswoman Helen Tracy.

Whether you are looking to skip a day of work or to secretly leave town for the weekend, Alibi Network can provide fake airline receipts or phone calls to your boss explaining your absence and even mock up an entire itinerary for a bogus conference you were "attending." Rarely has lying been so creepily airtight.

The Chicago-based company charges from $75 for a simple phone call to thousands of dollars for extensive lying, on top of a $75 annual fee. The most popular service is the "virtual hotel," in which the fibber can provide a boss or family member with the phone number of a hotel where he's supposed to be. The number rings to one of Alibi's phones, which are staffed by actors who will answer as if a particular hotel has been reached. The incoming call then can be forwarded to the fibber's cellphone, making it seem as if he's in a certain city even though he's not. (We use "he" here, but half of Alibi's members are female.)

Some requests involve a creative solution. One working stiff asked the service to get him out of a boring, week-long training class that was mandated by his office. The solution: Alibi hired an actor to dress up as a courier and barge into the class, informing the man that his house had been robbed and he needed to go home right away. Another request involved a married woman with small children who longed for a relaxing weekend away from the kids. Alibi concocted a story that the woman had won a free spa weekend in a prize drawing and hired an actor to call her home and leave a voicemail message informing her of her "win."

Still, Tracy admits that the company assumes many of its clients are using the service for the purpose of committing adultery. Not exactly uplifting news. But, hey, if Alibi's site is the worst thing you can find on the Internet, then you're not looking hard enough.