Want to feel like the youth is so much smarter than you? Look no further than the story of a young girl who figured out a way to get out of having to attend virtual school through Zoom by exploiting a safety feature hack and leaving none the wiser — not her mom, teachers, or school administration — for literally weeks.
The story, reported by her uncle, of the elaborate Zoom heist that got her out of school for almost a week to Twitter was first one the little kid referred to as a “technical glitch.” But what it really was that the genius 8-year-old pulled off avoiding her online school for weeks before she was caught by exploiting a few small things on Zoom that stumped basically everyone in her life. It’s hilarious, mischievous, and she got away with it for a while.
Mike Piccolo, the girl’s uncle, is the chief technology officer of the web development company FullStack Labs. He shared a Twitter thread outlining the details of how his young niece was able to get out of attending virtual school. She used a safety feature on Zoom to her advantage, disguised as a software error, and got out of attending school meetings for weeks.
Seriously, genius.
The grifter: My 8 year old niece
The prize: Playing virtual hooky permanently (School Zoom calls)
The marks: My sister, my brother in law, the teacher, the school’s computer teacher, the principle and Zoom's support team
The con: How she pulled it off… thread pic.twitter.com/cdz3SRhRu9
— Mike Piccolo (@mfpiccolo) February 13, 2021
“Day 1: (Zero Day) My sister has three kids, all are currently in Zoom classes. Mysteriously one day, my niece’s zoom stopped working,” Mike tweeted. “She went and told my sister who tried for over an hour to get her logged back in but could not. She figured it was a weird glitch.”
Day 2: The next day, sure as shit, the same thing happened. My niece was kicked off and couldn’t log back in. My sister emails the teacher and tells her she is having issues with zoom and she will try to figure it out.
— Mike Piccolo (@mfpiccolo) February 13, 2021
For days, her mother tried to fix the error, according to Mike. While trying to log in, Zoom kept saying that they had the “incorrect password.” The mom called the teacher who tried to get it to work for an hour. No luck. The mom took the computer to a friend’s house to see if it would work there, because maybe it was the Wi-Fi or IP address. Nope, still didn’t work.
Mom then called Zoom tech report. But, those experts couldn’t figure it out either.
Day 5: Issue continues. After hours on the phone with Zoom tech support the techs are completely stumped. They say that the account was locked at some point but my sister knows there has been hundreds of login attempts from multiple locations so that makes sense. (or does it?)
— Mike Piccolo (@mfpiccolo) February 13, 2021
The schools sends their computer teacher to their house, they couldn’t figure it out either. Everyone kept getting the “incorrect password” error.
“The rest of week 2: My sister has essentially given up on Zoom class for her and is now having to fully homeschool her,” Mike tweeted. “‘At least I get to help you around the house’ my niece says innocently. What a sweetheart.”
By the third week of the Zoom incorrect password issue, mom is now homeschooling her 8-year-old, and the young girl gets what she wanted. More time to herself, less time stuck to the computer.
But, her mischievous hooky prank was about to be found out.
Yesterday: My sister sent my niece back to her friend’s house where the problem seems to be happening less often. They sign her in and Zoom which seems to be working well for a while. Her friend happens to walk around the corner and sees my niece log out of Zoom!
— Mike Piccolo (@mfpiccolo) February 13, 2021
“My sister’s friend watches as my niece logs out, then repeatedly types in the wrong password to her account about 20 times,” Mike tweeted. “What my niece had figured out is that when you log in with an incorrect password, Zoom will lock your account for a set amount of time.”
Yep, genius level grift here.
“My niece found the exploit and combined it with her cute 8 year old face, a face that never could tell a lie much less pull off an elaborate scheme to trick no less than 8 adults for 3 weeks straight,” Mike wrote.
If she’s able to figure this out at such a young age, she’s destined for great things.
