Prank call

A prank call (also known as a crank call or hoax call) is a telephone practical joke. Prank phone calls began to gain a worldwide following since the invention of telephones, as they became a staple of the obscure and amusing cassette tapes traded among musicians, sound engineers, and media traders beginning in the late 1970s. Among the most famous and earliest recorded prank calls are the Tube Bar prank calls tapes, which centered on Louis "Red" Deutsch. Comedian Jerry Lewis was an incorrigible phone prankster, and recordings of his hijinks, dating from the 1960s and possibly earlier, still circulate to this day.

Very prominent people have fallen victim to prank callers, for example Elizabeth II, who was fooled by Canadian DJ Pierre Brassard posing as Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, asking her to record a speech in support of Canadian unity ahead of the 1995 Quebec referendum.^[1] Two other notable examples of prank calls were made by the Miami-based radio station Radio El Zol. In one, they telephoned Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, and spoke to him pretending to be Cuban president Fidel Castro.^[2] They later reversed the prank, calling Castro and pretending to be Chávez. Castro began swearing at the pranksters live on air after they revealed themselves.^[3]

Anonymity

Prank callers can now be easily found through Caller ID, so it is often asserted that prank calls since the 1990s have been harder to accomplish and thus waning in popularity.^[4] Most telephone companies permit callers to withhold the identifying information from calls using the vertical service code *67 that blocks the caller's ID (141 in the UK), but potential victims may be reluctant to answer a call from an ID-blocked number.^[4] Wiretapping by several governments have also helped bypass this problem. Callers can also call from payphones in order to hide their identity, although this is becoming less common as pay phones are beginning to phase out starting in the late 2000s. The advent and advancements in digital switching technologies such as those found in SS7, unspoofable ANI, as well as outbound and inbound calls being logged at carrier exchange equipment, further complicate the pranksters will to remain anonymous while carrying out such activities.

Another increasingly popular option is to use some form of VoIP. With some VoIP services, the telephone number will simply not exist. These calls are extremely difficult to trace since they may pass through servers and routers operated by multiple corporations or entities in various countries. Although law enforcement agencies may theoretically be able to find where a VoIP call originates from if they tried, in practice the amount of time, effort, and resources required would be too great to use on ordinary prank calls.

Political leaders

Sometimes prank callers are able to connect with political leaders. In December 2005, when a commercially operated radio station in Spain (COPE – owned by a series of institutions affiliated with the Catholic Church) played a prank on Bolivian president-elect Evo Morales. The hoaxster pretended to be Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, congratulating Morales on his election^[5] and saying things like, "I imagine the only one not to have called you was George Bush. I've been here two years and he still hasn't called me".^[6]

Prank calls and the Internet

Ever since the opportunity has been available, there have been multiple internet radio stations dedicated to prank calls. Most of them feature a so-called "rotation" of prank calls, which is a constant broadcast of various prank calls submitted by the community, usually streamed from a SHOUTcast server host. Software such as Ventrilo has allowed prank calls to be carried out to a more private user-base, however, in real-time.

The internet has allowed many people to share their own personal prank calls and develop into communities. Prank calls can be carried out in many ways; live or pre-recorded. Sites such as Stickam and Ustream allow hosts to carry out prank calls live to thousands of listeners, who can also chat and discuss on-goings in real-time. The use of social networking and the popularity of user generated content also allows these prank calls to spread and popularity to grow. For example, the popular internet series "PrankCallsX" features pre-recorded prank calls to fan-suggested businesses and the website PrankDial allows users to send pre-recorded pranks to any number they want.

Legal issues

Some prank calls are criminalized in many jurisdictions, for instance if the call involves calling the emergency services, while others may be protected as freedom of expression. For example, in the US, for a prank call to fall afoul of the Telecommunications Act, 47 U.S.C. § 223(a)(1), the call must be done with the intent to "annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass". In Australia, the 2Day FM incident is alleged by ACMA to have violated Australian law, but on the grounds that the recorded call was publicly broadcast without the other party's consent.^[7]

Rudimentary criminal 'pranks' may range from simple telephone harassment to bomb threats. One such hoax call occurred in Perth, Western Australia, on New Year's Eve 2002, when a drunk teenager called the new anti-terrorist hot line to report a bomb threat against the New Year's Eve fireworks celebrations.^[8] The threat was taken seriously, and the celebrations were about to be cancelled when police discovered that no such threat existed. The teenager was then arrested for the false report.

More elaborate pranks rely on tricking the recipient into harmful behavior. An example of these was the 1996-2004 strip search phone call scam, in which a prankster posing as a police officer was able to cause store managers to strip search female employees. More recently, the Pranknet virtual community has been credited for causing tens of thousands of dollars in damage to many hotels and fast food restaurants. Posing as authority figures, such as fire alarm company representatives and hotel corporate managers, Pranknet participants called unsuspecting employees and customers in the United States via Skype and tricked them into damaging property, setting off fire sprinklers and other humiliating acts such as disrobing. They also post fraudulent ads on Craigslist, and then shout racial epithets and make violent threats of rape and murder against the people who call them to respond to the ads. Pranknet members listen in real-time and discuss the progress together in a private chat room. The group, who flaunted their anonymity, were outed when editors of The Smoking Gun, posing as journalists, persuaded them to visit unique URLs.^[9]

A series of prank calls by Joseph Sherer led to convictions and a twenty-year prison sentence for impersonating a physician, criminal endangerment, and aggravated assault.^[10][11] In one call, as described by the Montana Supreme Court, "Sherer, impersonating a sympathetic and caring doctor, instructed the victim to cut off her nipple. The victim's obedient actions flowed directly from Sherer's instructions."^[12]

Until his death in 2011, Oklahoma construction worker Frank Garrett was prank called and recorded countless times for his vitriolic reactions. The soundboard community that followed him caused at least two known incidents with the law, one in Kansas City and the other in Houston; both were for threats of violence against the police using his voice. Both incidents were covered by local FOX News stations.^[13]

In 2012, Jacintha Saldanha, a nurse at King Edward VII hospital who was attending a pregnant Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, was deceived into transferring a prank call from Mel Greig and Mike Christian, the hosts of the Hot30 Countdown radio program broadcast on 2Day FM in Sydney, Australia, who were impersonating Queen Elizabeth II and Charles, Prince of Wales. The hoaxsters were able to ask the duty nurse questions about the duchess' health, making the answers public. Saldanha was later found dead in a suspected suicide. The incident and the following death received intense media coverage and triggered an investigation, but no charges were laid.^[14][15][16]

Popular culture

Prank calls frequently appear in many earlier episodes of The Simpsons, as Bart calls Moe's Tavern asking for people whose names are actually double entendres. Examples include "Mike Rotch" (my crotch), Bea O' Problem (B.O. problem), Al Coholic (Alcoholic), "Amanda Hugginkiss" (a man to hug and kiss), and Anita Bath (I need a bath). Moe then asks his clientele if the person is present, embarrassing himself in the process. However, in the episode Flaming Moe's, Bart's prank call backfires when he calls up asking for a "Hugh Jass" (huge ass), only for a man with the same name to answer. And in Donnie Fatso, Fat Tony accidentally calls Moe asking for his business partner, "Yuri Nator" (urinator).

"Weird Al" Yankovic's song "Phony Calls" (a parody of "Waterfalls" by TLC) deals with prank phone calls. Specifically, it talks about the "Is your refrigerator running?" gag and the "Do you have Prince Albert in a can?" gag. It also incorporates Bart Simpson's aforementioned "Mike Rotch" prank phone call.

On an episode of Pee-Wee's Playhouse, the mischievous Randy makes a prank call (the classic "Is your refrigerator running? Then you better catch it!" gag) and talks Pee-Wee into doing so also. The recipient of the call is irritated and gets her husband on the phone, a police officer. The officer warns Pee-Wee that making prank calls is against the law and that it can result in going to jail and a lifetime criminal record.

The Cartoon Network series Regular Show featured an episode centered around prank calls in its first season, entitled "Prank Callers". Inspired by watching online videos of the "world's best prank caller", the show's protagonists, Mordecai and Rigby, attempt to make several prank calls of their own. After the two fail to prank the world's best prank caller, they are sent back in time to 1982, and are later joined by the rest of the show's main cast. The episode then focuses on the group's efforts to return to their proper time period.

In John Carpenter's spooky thriller, Halloween, during the scene when Michael Myers appears before Lynda while disguising himself as her boyfriend, Bob, in a ghost costume, and she teases him before calling Laurie, during which Michael strangles her, Laurie thinks it's just Annie making another prank call.

Prank calls are common in morning radio talk shows with a comedy theme, radio broadcasts a Carmen Prank Call will occur, where "Carmen" calls random people and annoys them to the point of them hanging up, irritated, once, and after a second call, twice. Prank calls are generally done for the amusement of the pranksters (and their listening audiences). Some performers such as The Jerky Boys, Tom Mabe and Roy D. Mercer made a name for themselves producing albums of their recorded prank calls.

Sal "the Stockbroker" Governale and Richard Christy, writers on The Howard Stern Show, have made various prank calls to public access shows, talk radio, radio stations, and normal people at home. They also have a fictional radio show called the "Jack and Rod show" where they call a major celebrity for an interview and prank them with sound effects or fake guests such as Cousin Brucie (where Howard imitates a famous radio host while using an exaggerated version of his signature speech patterns) and many other pranks.

The television show Crank Yankers is a series of real-life prank calls made by celebrities and re-enacted on-screen by puppets for a humorous effect.

Fonejacker, a show started on April 5, 2007 on E4, stars Kayvan Novak performing prank calls to the general public and being shown with animated pictures in a Monty Python style with their mouths moving and live recordings as the victim receives the call.

Beginning in early 2011, the image board 4chan organized a prank calling of the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop in Las Vegas, Nevada, location of the popular television show Pawn Stars. The callers repeatedly asked the employees if they sold Battletoads, a video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System notorious for its difficulty. This call led Rick, star of Pawn Stars and owner of the store, to repeatedly swear and yell at the prank callers. The 4chan callers recorded this and uploaded it to YouTube, and subsequently many videos related to prank callers dialing random establishments and asking about Battletoads have been uploaded.^[17][18]

See also

References

External links

• Prank Calls at DMOZ