She agreed to a video call with Josh Pieters and Archie Manners, who pretended to be part of the production company that arranged the live segments of "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon."
The pair posted the video to their YouTube channel, which has over a million views and counting, which published the first major interview Baskin has given since "Tiger King" came out.
Baskin commented on the video, saying she was suspicious afterwards because it didn't sound like a live interview.
In a subsequent interview with Us Weekly, she said the prank was funny and there were no hard feelings.
It worked, and Baskin was fooled among several other celebrities including Craig David. In fact, she gave them her first public interview since the binge-worthy phenomenon "Tiger King" dropped on Netflix.
Baskin took part in the interview under the condition she didn't answer any questions about "Tiger King," and instead focused on her animal rights work.
She seems to have taken the prank in good faith. She commented on the video saying she had her suspicions because the call sounded quite strange, and posted an email she had sent to her husband and daughter afterwards.
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"Well that was weird," she wrote. "I couldn't see Fallon during the interview, and when they had his voice on the questions they didn't sound like it was specific to the topic. He'd just say things they could have recorded from any other interview; like 'What are you doing during quarantine?'"
She said she was also sceptical when "Fallon" said "miss you, buddy," at the end of the call.
"They did stick to the questions they gave us, so I just can't tell," she added. "This whole thing may have been a spoof and they said they won't broadcast till next week, and will let us know before they do, but I'm not holding my breath."
Carole Baskin YouTube
After the video went live, Baskin told news outlets that she wasn't upset.
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"I was suspicious as we were doing it because the questions appeared taped," she told Us Weekly. "But had no idea it would turn out to be such a fun prank. It gave us a very welcome good laugh. I appreciate their cleverness and that they created their video in a way that I don't feel was in any way mean-spirited."
Baskin was also able to do what she does best: promote animal charities and animal welfare to millions of people watching at home.
Pieters told Insider Baskin is a "very interesting lady," and was excited to share the interview with the world.
"We really did not expect it to work," he said. "We still can't really believe we managed to interview Carole Baskin."
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