Jacque Day Archer

Here's the pitch: Man of means has seen the girl of his dreams, but hasn't met her. And as she's not the kind of gal to take to bad pick-up lines, or a dating agency, just how are they supposed to hook up? "You can't STALK her," says Chicago's purported high-priced set-up agency, Coincidence Design, "But WE CAN."

Coincidence Design claims to provide this service (though they say it's really detailed research and investigation that leads to two seemingly "coincidental encounters" with your girl). And this claim has spurred buzz about the alleged operation to worldwide heights--sites in New Zealand and Poland have linked to it and it's received a mass of media coverage, including a Chicago Sun-Times column by Paige Smoron detailing the scary concept. Of course, the bigger question concerns whether it's even real. The Website, www.coincidencedesign.com, only provides this information: They don't talk to reporters, don't disclose staff or location, and charge, well, a mint--$10,000 retainer and a fee in the $80,000 range.

Sounds fairly fishy, though Michael Miller, an associate editor for The South Florida Business Journal, who has been tailing the alleged operation for months, still isn't sure. "I have no idea how legit it is," says Miller. "It seems like an incredibly complex ruse if it is one."

But the signs are there. Though the site claims what they do is legal, Miller says his checks found "no company by the name of Coincidence Design is licensed to do business in Chicago [Illinois], Texas, California or Florida." According to Namesecure, the registration service for the domain name, the corporate offices of Coincidence Design are headquartered at 2001 Bryan Tower, Suite 3915, Dallas, Texas. That has baffled management representatives of Spire Realty Group, the building's owner and manager, which has been fielding a rash of inquiries. "We don't know who they are," says a Spire representative. "There is no Suite 3915."

Namesecure also boasts a phone number in Sacramento, California--dial it up and you get the Chase Automotive Group. "We just started receiving these strange phone calls," says Chase Automotive's controller, Jenny Isackson. "We do not have anything to do with them."

The key to at least one turn in this maze is Coincidence Design's lone administrative contact--Jason Bourne. Bourne is the central character of Robert Ludlum's 1980 spy thriller, "The Bourne Identity" (a film version, starring Matt Damon, is due out this summer), and Ludlum fans say the Bryan Tower and Chase Ford have direct connections to the book.

But even if it's all just a movie marketing gimmick, the mere idea may well be feasible. "This kind of thing goes on all the time," says Miller, who, while researching his own story learned that private investigators find this brand of work fairly common, though usually less expensive and on a less elaborate scale.

Still, if Coincidence Design is a hoax, which it would seem to be, there always exists the possibility that someone will pick up on the idea and run with it.

"It's like Alfred Hitchcock's matchmaker service," Miller says. "It's extraordinarily creepy."

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