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PM pranked: five of the best hoax calls
After a drunk impostor was put through to the PM, we round up the funniest hoax calls
Downing Street has confirmed that a hoax caller pretending to be the head of GCHQ was put through to David Cameron on Sunday, prompting a review of government security procedures – but the prime minister isn't the first person to be fooled by a prank caller.
Cameron spoke to the hoax caller, who claimed to be Robert Hannigan, the head of GCHQ, but reportedly hung up quickly after realising that the caller was a fraud. According to a Downing Street spokesperson, the call was "quite brief" and no sensitive information was revealed.
From the Jerky Boys to FoneJacker, prank calling has a long history. Here are some of the most ingenious hoax calls from around the internet.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
In this inventive hoax call, a reader of the Deadspin website led two pizza outlets to order pizzas from one another. The prankster engineered the hoax by calling one pizza outlet and leaving a long complex order, then getting a second restaurant on the phone, and asking the first order to be repeated back.
Please destroy my school
Becky – an incredibly self-assured and straight-faced little girl – orders a destruction company to knock her school to the ground for giving her "too much homework".
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Telemarketer revenge
A telemarketer gets more than he bargains for when he cold calls a number and quickly finds himself the prime suspect in a murder investigation.
Scam tech support call
Lon Seidman shows you how to deal with scammers who pose as tech support.
More terrorising telemarketers
Getting back at telemarketers is popular among prank callers. In this hoax, Jim Florentine tells his cold caller that his siblings died in a recent plane crash… "Maybe I'll give you a call in six months or something?" the telemarketer responds sensitively.
