I was minding my own business, diligently working yesterday when my phone rang. It was a 718 area code. I recognized those digits as Brooklyn and surrounding areas. Thinking it was someone I might know, I picked it up.
A man, well, a male voice on the other end of the phone began talking. “Hey, what’s up?” (pause) “You got time to talk?” (pause) “Good.” (pause) “Where you at right now?”
What?!?!
I’d been on the receiving end of many a prank call courtesy of my dear sister. I figured this was just another, but the person did not respond to my inquiry of “Who is this?” It was some whacked out recording.
I listened until the end and learned that the call came from popularitydialer. My sister fessed up to it later that day and laughed so hard she almost stopped breathing, then hung up on me. I went to the site to check it out. I guess there are people who LOVE to get phone calls. Shows how needed and wanted one is, I guess. You can schedule calls to yourself so that everyone around you will see that you are one hot potato. It’s totally convincing since there is a voice on the other end of the line.
Remember the unconvincing options of just last year? You could press the ring volume button on the side of your phone to make it ring, then place it on your ear and fake a conversation. But, if someone got close enough they could totally rat you out. This would have been really handy back in the olden days. You know, when you pretended you were in some deep conversation on your rotary phone, but then that annoying, buzzy ehh-ehh-ehhh, doo-doo-doo tone, and recording kicked in to tell you the phone was off the hook. Then, you just looked pathetic.
You can also use the service as an alternative means of pranking, like someone I know did. Considerately, Popularitydialer also created a “do not call option” on the site. So, when you’ve had enough, you can enter your phone number and be popular no more.
What will they think of next?
