Many of us can tell when the person calling us is a scam.

You can hang up or you can prank the scammers until they hang up.

See the unique way this bilingual person deals with phone scammers.

Scam call me? Have fun, I’ll steal your time

Scam calls are as popular as ever, I think we all know that. Of course, my number also landed in some system, causing scammers to call me.

I’m from Germany, have a German phone number and it’s my mother tongue. But when an unknown number from a different country calls me, I answer in English.

It comes in handy.

If they ask me if I speak German, I reply in English. No matter what they ask me in German, I reply, but in English. The past two scammers have been quite confused by that until they either got a colleague on the phone or switched languages themselves.

And when they start their whole spiel about “transactions,” “applications” and “blockchains” I’m honest. No, I’m not part of the blockchain, haven’t applied anywhere and haven’t authorized any transactions.

I stay polite. Asking “Oh, how did my number get into your system then? The system can’t be wrong? But it obviously is!”

He doesn’t break character.

A scammer told ask me “Oh, you think you’re really smart?” so like the entitled jerk I’m not in real life, I said: “I know, I’m really smart. Thank you for flattering me.”

Last guy even asked me if I have Instagram. When I said I don’t use it anymore, he hung up.

Sadly.

Of course I end up blocking the numbers once the call is over. I’m wasting their time and I now gladly do so. The longer they spent on the phone with me the less time they have to scam other people, who may fall for it.

Here is what people are saying.

I bet they get that a lot.

How efficient!

I bet.

Good point. A.I. is going to get scary.

Dang. Nothing lasts forever.

It’s been a pleasure.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check out what happened when a family gave their in-laws a free place to stay in exchange for babysitting, but things changed when they don’t hold up their end of the bargain.