Eshin Direct

Dialing wrong numbers happens to us all. So why not gracefully apologize when it happens and show consideration for the fact that someone spent time and energy on your own incompetence? Stupid old auntie dialed the wrong number, and she even bothered to say “Eh? Wrong number” before hanging up without apology.

I think SingTel should invest in technology that enables you to send near-fatal electric shocks down the telephone line to unwanted callers. I’d certainly pay a happy premium for that.

At least make it amusing or provide some form of entertainment beyond the scope of the call, like the automated prank call I received last year along with several other people I know.

The call starts off with a young English girl calling you at around midnight. Complete with pauses at the necessary junctures to make you believe it is actually a live person on the other end of the line. It goes something like this:

“Hi. Do you remember me?”

“You were out with your mates dancing and we met?” (This is spoken really quickly so you really only catch you were out with your mates).

“Well, you know I told you I was 18? I’m actually 14 but it’s okay because I like you. Anyway, it’s my birthday this Saturday and I was wondering if you’d like to come…”

This is as much of the dialogue that I can recall since I hung up after a while. I hadn’t actually realized that it was automated until I told my friends about it a couple of weeks later. Turns out they had received exactly the same call and one guy had actually had heard the message till the end when it started to loop again. What was strange was that the people that received it were all formerly living in the UK and our connection is that we all worked for the same company.

The mystery entertained us for a good few weeks after with speculation since there was no real motive for the call. It didn’t ask you to buy anything or in fact, do anything. Was it designed to catch out wayward husbands and boyfriends? Was it a government sting operation to net dirty expats seeking the pleasures of underage girls (who spoke in an English accent in Singapore)?

That, people, is how you do a prank and wrong number call. Not, “Eh? Wrong number ah!”

Tags: mystery, prank call, telephone