
The vanishing, underappreciated prank call - luu
http://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2014/06/14/the-vanishing-underappreciated-prank-call/yNo0aIoOo5yXeadKt8EmsI/story.html
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JacobAldridge
What the OP may call "lighthearted", "chasing a high", and "an unexpected
education" I call "No. Don't do it."

I'm not speaking as the recipient here. I'm speaking as someone who was hauled
in front of the police because what I considered "lighthearted" had scared the
hell out of an unsuspecting (albeit naive) family. While I was giggling at a
random number, they were worried that someone had selected them for abuse and
a knock on the door was next.

The OP makes the comparison to trolling, and determines trolling is worse
because of the "raw anonymity". I would suspect most people would prefer that
anonymity over the "intimacy" of having an anonymous voice on the other end of
your phone line making similar accusations or hurling profanities.

Hilarious as some prank calls genuinely are, they weren't really acceptable
then. And they aren't now.

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ggreer
Ah yes, how sad that it is harder than ever to abuse communication networks to
sow distrust and anger. Thanks to better filters and a movement toward
identifying users, most of us are less bothered by bad actors than we've ever
been.

What surprises me most is the author's lack of contrition. I forgive people
for past mistakes, but she still fondly remembers how she made others' lives
hell. Fortunately, the Internet also remembers. People who google "Kate Levin"
will probably find this article. If they're like me, they'll be a little less
likely to associate with her.

~~~
Pinatubo
You seem fun.

~~~
chris_wot
He sounds like someone who doesn't want to be annoyed by people calling to
make stupid prank phone calls at all hours of the day. I'm also one of those
people. So sue me.

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noonespecial
Its not gone! I have a home phone delivered along with our cable tv that we've
never used for anything. It rings three or for times per day with some random
sales spam.

I answer in German sometimes. Sometimes I demand in a hushed tone to know how
they got this number, secret agent style. Other times I pretend to be the most
excited person in the world about whatever scammy schlock they're slinging.
Once or twice, I've claimed to be the family dog, keeping my communication
skills a secret from "the masters" and looking for a way out of the house. My
kids laugh. My wife loves it. Every ring a fresh new opportunity.

Do not call list? Hardly. A tiny sliver of my adolescence lives on.

~~~
snarfy
Due to various (business) reasons it was easier/cheaper to get the stupid
bundled land line with cable tv.

I had so much spam on that line that I changed my recorded message to the
three tones with the "We're sorry. The call cannot be completed as dialed.
Please check the number and try your call again." message. After about a month
all the spam stopped.

~~~
coldpie
Couldn't you just not attach anything to the line?

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masaladosa
Prank calls were a lot of fun. I especially like this one: select a number,
call them once a day, asking "Hi, is Jack home?" After six days or so, call
again, saying "Hi, this is Jack, has anyone called for me?"

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stonith
I don't think messing with strangers is a particularly good idea. This
situation outlines why pretty clearly:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Jacintha_Saldanha](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Jacintha_Saldanha)

~~~
thaumasiotes
It's not so easy to use "person X, who had attempted suicide multiple times,
left a note blaming her successful suicide on a prank played on her three days
prior" to conclude that the problem was the prank. What do you think the odds
are that she would have killed herself anyway?

Just to be clear, I don't endorse prank calling at all; I'm glad it's a dying
"art". But the death of Jacintha Saldanha isn't evidence for anything more
than "people who are determined to mess up their own lives, can".

~~~
DanBC
The point is not that "prank calls kill people". The point is that you do not
know the situation of the person you are calling and even these simple fun
calls can cause an undue amount of distress or anxiety. Since the benefit is
minimal the risks seem to outweigh them.

~~~
thaumasiotes
And I'm pointing out that the risk here isn't "person who otherwise would have
lived dies", although people seem to want to treat it that way. It's
"extremely fragile person, already on suicide watch, makes yet another suicide
attempt". That's not a large risk, it's a small one.

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nakedrobot2
I used to have a radio show in high school. Not only did the high school let a
bunch of kids broadcast basically anything they wanted to the public at large
- they ALSO had a TELEPHONE hooked up, so that you could place calls, live!
(They also had a 7-second delay, with a "dump button" just in case a bad word
slipped out)

We used to call the Burger King customer service 800 number. Every week. We'd
complain about Big Macs, and other silly things. Nothing harmful. They
eventually got wise to our antics and everyone working there was told not to
talk to those kids calling between 11am and 2pm on saturdays.

The 800 operator was also very useful: 800 555 1212 - a directory of all toll-
free numbers. Once we just made up a 3-letter acronym, got the 800 number for
it, and called them. Some guy answered. We asked him what the 3 letters stand
for. "Nothing," he said. "They used to stand for something but they don't,
anymore." It was a strange kind of existential conversation.

Oh yes, those were fun times.

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peterwwillis
Pranking is a lot more of a niche now than it ever was, but it's still alive.
For some unholy reason PLA is still around:
[http://www.phonelosers.org/](http://www.phonelosers.org/)

My favorite pranks were on confs with other loser kids from IRC, usually
calling up either a business support line and trolling them with unsolveable
product bugs, or something more esoteric, like calling up a sexual assault
line and asking what counted as sexual assault, or an STD prevention hotline
asking about strange maladies. Invariably someone else would hop on the line
and make the whole thing into a soap opera for the poor abused call center
monkey.

If there's not that many pranks anymore it's probably because kids are finding
new ways to deal with boredom.

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khc
"For people who’ve been on the wrong end, the death of the prank call would
come as a relief. I know how they feel: Just last summer, someone called me
and claimed to be holding my brother at gunpoint."

So is it dead or is it not?

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codesuela
Swapping replaced the traditional prank call

~~~
hyperion2010
I think you mean Swatting, which a good reminder of just how insane the US has
become.

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mantraxC
Who needs prank calls when we can troll the comments sections of news
websites.

Wubba lubba dub dub!

Plus... honestly: "underappreciated prank calls". You gonna talk about some
ancient childish nuisance behavior as if it's a red book animal species worth
protecting?

Jesus, nostalgia is a powerful reality distortion field. Next thing, people
might start talking about how scratched dusty vinyl records sound better than
lossless digital audio.

