How the blazes did this get posted twice... I am having Monday IT issues....Yes I understand your frustration, for about a few minutes I was trying to figure it out... I finally clued in...
The issue was in my opinion the duration of it. April Fools jokes are intended until noon day of. Maybe they were unawares of the unwritten rule for this.
Hints could have been had to let person know it was a joke/farce, I am sure there was no malice intended, it just got out of hand.
Hiding/filtering out the texts from those who figured it out was likely not a good move, and would have gone a long ways to assuage the fears of some people.
The one good thing it did do was start an awesome conversation on personal Id/names. Many were truly hilarious.