My girlfriend was offered ‘free lunch’ at work… she NEVER predicted what would happen hours later: ‘Big trouble’
An American man has ignited an online firestorm after his fiancée was tricked into thinking she was getting a free lunch at her corporate workplace.
‘My fiancée told me she got an email from her job that said, “On Tuesday, everybody come to the office. We’re doing free Chipotle as a team building thing”,’ Matt Pena recalled in a TikTok video.
The NYC-based comedian said his partner was excited about the prospect and immediately replied to ‘put in her order’.
But the office worker never predicted what was coming next.
‘She went to work on Tuesday and it turns out it was one of those phishing email tests – and she failed miserably,’ Matt said.
‘So now she has to sit in on a three-hour course to learn about the dangers of clicking on dangerous emails.’
With most of today’s corporate workplaces heavily reliant on online technology, it’s commonplace for employers to vigilantly educate their employees about the threat of digital dangers, like phishing and scam emails.
Matt concluded that although he understood why businesses undertook such measures, he was stunned at the extent of this particular one that fooled his partner.
NYC comedian Matt Pena recounted that his fianceé was stunned to discover the lunch offer email was in fact a phishing test – and that she had failed
The comedian’s video quickly exploded on TikTok and Instagram, viewed over 700,000 times on the former and receiving over 11,000 comments across both platforms.
The predominant sentiment among the replies was astonished outrage on behalf of Matt’s fiancée.
‘Phishing with burrito bait is diabolical,’ declared a much-liked comment.
‘That’s entrapment,’ agreed another.
‘This would be my villain origin story,’ another person humorously responded.
One person observed that it must have been a sad realisation when she worked out it was all just a test.
‘Her arriving to work with no lunch and then being punished with a three-hour course – and the shame,’ they wrote.
Quite a number of people felt that dangling the offer of free Chipotle was too good to refuse – and that her workplace should at the very least ‘provide a Chipotle lunch for the people in the course’.
Matt shared the story about the fake free Chipotle email offer to his @mattpenacomedy social media accounts and it quickly went viral, with commenters claiming what happened to the office worker was ‘diabolical’
Many commenters also hoped that Matt at least stepped up as the ultimate partner by getting his future wife some Chipotle that evening.
But the entire episode sparked a broader discussion among other workers who confessed to having also fallen for too-good-to-be-true emailed offers that they thought were from their employer.
‘I fell for a free pizza phishing email test at work. I had to watch a video about the dangers of phishing emails – with no pizza… and I was 7 months pregnant,’ read one reply.
‘I got a phishing Valentine’s card… Rude!’
‘They did this with us but it was Beyonce tickets,’ another worker confessed.
‘My company sent me a phishing email that said “Congrats, the team all signed a card for you, check it out!” – ON MY BIRTHDAY.’
‘I got an email from HR in January saying “Click here to add your annual raise to your current job contract”, and then I had to take a two-hour training on phishing. Note: I’m part of the IT team,’ another said.
Chipotle Mexican Grill is a takeaway chain renowned for their Mexican fare including burritos, bowls and tacos
Although the comments were filled with grumblings about whether a generous and enticing offer was a fair way to test employees’ online savviness, a number of replies felt it was an important reminder to always be vigilant online.
‘Always check the sender! There are clues!’ advised one reply.
Another responder was stunned the woman fell for this email, ‘no matter how many times they send the email, no matter the training.’
One person explained that it was clever for the company to set up such a believable phishing test.
‘[These] emails are set up by the company to try to trick people into clicking links. Usually they misspell something or make it look like it’s an external email.’
Another agreed that the enticement was essential to keep employees on their toes so that they can recognise how easily anyone can be tricked ‘to click on the link and give them something – usually information/data’.
‘She filled it with what she wanted to eat as well as giving her work email and additional sensitive data they could have asked her to fill,’ they elaborated.
‘My husband works in IT and he is the one responsible for making these training emails. Sometimes, he lets me pick the phishing emails (there are dozens of templates to choose from) and then he’ll tell me how many people fell for it. It’s the highlight of my month hahaha. Sorry,’ another woman replied.
However, there was a silver lining to the story.
A day after Matt posted the video, the official Chipotle account weighed into the comments with the reply: ‘This isn’t a phish. Check ur dms.’
Sure enough, Matt told Daily Mail that the popular casual Mexican chain replied to him saying: ‘Hi Matt, this dm’s for real! Tell your fiancée not to worry, this one’s on us – enjoy these two free entrée codes.’
The reply directly from Chipotle warmed the hearts of many who had watched the video online.
‘Chipotle for the save!’ one replied.
Another cheeky response simply suggested: ‘She should go in to the meeting eating her order.’
