An estimated 56 million US adults were reported as being affected by scam robocalls, resulting in $25.4 billion in losses, according to a 2023 Truecaller U.S. Spam and Scam Report. This means that about 21% of US adults were victimized by phone scams in 2023 alone.
Surprisingly, the report also found that, despite the stereotype of seniors being the biggest victims of phone scams, young adults between the ages 18-44 were three times more likely to be taken advantage of than older adults 45 and up.
And while you can thwart these types of calls simply by hanging up (or downloading robocall blocker apps to avoid them entirely), many choose instead to enact very creative revenge.
This is evident in the 15K+ answers folks gave to the question posed on Reddit: “What is something you say to scammers instead of hanging up?”
Did these folks waste their time? Maybe, but at least they were plenty entertained along the way. Plus, it meant the scammers had less time preying on other potential victims.
Below were some of the responses we found the funniest, most unique, and in some cases, most savage. Enjoy, and maybe bookmark a few to use for yourself.
1. “I once repeated ‘uh huh, go on..’ over and over until they got really irritated and then just hung up on me.”
2. “My grandfather let them do their whole speech for about 20 minutes. He then told them he didn’t have his hearing aid in and asked if they could repeat it all. They hung up immediately.”
From ‘Gente-fied’media1.giphy.com
3. “I once saw caller ID (land line days) with a number that I figured was a telemarketer. In a ‘tough’ voice, without saying hello I asked, ‘Is he dead?’ And about a beat and a half later I said, ‘Because if he ain’t dead, don’t you even think about coming back here.’ Then what sounded like a young woman on the other end said, ‘Um, uh, uh Bye!’ Hope she had as much fun telling her friends as I had telling mine.”
4. “Scammer was Indian, I’m Indian, I put on my Indian accent then accused him of putting on a bad fake Indian accent to make fun of me and told him he should be ashamed of himself. It was a few seconds of fun.”
5. “I asked, ‘does your mother know that you steal for a living?’ He responded, ‘yes.’ I hadn’t planned on that.
6. “Just start chanting in Latin. Most hang up quickly. One begged me not to curse her family.”
7. “We have a Rick Roll extension. We forward them to it after telling them about the brief hold and then check the recording length the next day to see if they’ve beaten the record.”
From ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’media4.giphy.com
8. “You’ve reached the FBI telephone fraud division, how may I help you?”
9. “’Hi, We have been trying to reach you about your car’s warranty.’ ‘Thats great, what plans can you offer me on my 97 geo metro? I’ve only been in 6 wrecks.’ They usually just give up.”
10. “I once got a scammer to say ‘I love you too.’ It was one of those resort/vacation calls and I kept him in the line for his whole spiel. When he asked who else would be vacationing with me, I asked if he would go with me. I was like, ‘It will save on airfare because you’re already there.’ Ended up with him saying he had to end the call and I was like, ‘Okay. I love you.’ And he reflexively goes ‘I love you too.’ The high point of my life.”
11. “If they are calling about windows and doors, I tell them I live in a tent. ‘You are calling a tent, did you know this?’ If they call about HVAC, I tell them I live in a castle, and we heat it in the wintertime by burning witches.”
12. “’Mr. Smashing Stuff, I’m calling about an accident you were involved in that wasn’t your fault.’ ‘Oh it wasn’t an accident, I meant to hurt those people.’ The pause you get before being immediately escalated to a ‘manager’ is like a crack to me.”
From ‘Austin Powers’media4.giphy.com
13. “I give them a phone number one digit at a time and ask them to repeat it as a whole after each one. Then tell them they got it wrong when I’m done and start over.”
14. “I have two things I do. 1) I try to sell them WiFi. I personally have nothing to do with internet services. But I can guarantee that my services are the cheapest in town and seeing as how you called me you must be interested. Now before you think ‘man I’m really not gonna get as good a deal as I’d like.’ I can promise no buffers and high-quality streaming at a fraction. Yes, you heard it a fraction of what you currently are paying, if you just give me your first and last name we can get the ball rolling. No one has ever lasted that one. 2) in a very heavy southern accent. ‘Now the lord spoke to me today and he told me that I’d be bringing another one of his lambs that had been led astray back into the flock, I’m gonna open this conversation with a prayer real quick.’ Most people hang up. Some and very few last through my 10-minute prayer. After that, I go straight into asking about their addictions and why the lord is telling me about how their browser history is causing demons to enter their home.”
15. “Is this what you wanted to be when you grew up?”
16. “I used to get a lot of ‘home security’ calls offering alarm systems and cameras. I would of course ask all the curious questions and then lead them to believe I was using the alarm system and cameras to keep people inside the house.”
From ‘The Diplomat’media1.giphy.com
17. “Me – do you believe in our lord and savior Jesus Christ? Them – yes. Me – he wants you to quit calling.”
18. “My new thing is to heavily troll them for as long as possible. If they’re going to waste my time with endless calls, well then I’m going to do the same. Here’s a good one – I recently encountered a very low-tech health insurance scam that used an actual phone line and not a spoof. I called them back literally over 1000 times for two days straight and eventually got to the main person. He actually pleaded for me to stop calling and apologized profusely, lol it was very satisfying.”
19. “I tell them my mother said to me not to talk to strangers and ask them to call me on FaceTime.”
20. “I can’t talk right now, I’m actually here to rob the place.”
A robber on a mission.media4.giphy.com
21. “HELLO, caller number two! You’re on with The Sturge at numbitty 902 WA3DFM. What do you have to say about the Lizard Illuminati?”
22. “I get calls for Duct cleaning. When they ask I ask if they do chickens or geese too.”
23. “I pretend to be the dumbest guy in the world. Them – ‘You should update your home’s security’ Me – ‘Like how?’ Them – ‘A camera on the front door is a good st..’ Me (interrupts) – ‘Front door? My front door is on the side of my house. How will that work? Do you have a side door camera?’ Them – ‘Yes sir of course. We have many dif…’ Me (interrupts again) – ‘PHEW! I have looked for so long for a side front door camera salesman. You, sir, are my savior. Are you married?’”
24. “I take a deep breath and let out a continuous raspberry. (fart noise with your tongue) for as long as I can. When I stop to take a breath I usually hear ‘..uh.. hello?’ And then I take a big breath again and continue. No one has made it to two full raspberries before hanging up on me.”
From ‘New Girl’media1.giphy.com
25. “I whisper into the mic to make them turn the volume on their headsets up then suddenly start yelling.”
Granted, it might be worth adding the disclaimer that for many of these folks, scamming might not exactly be a choice. Around the world, human trafficking-fueled cyberfraud, in which people are lured through fake job ads and forced into scamming work, has become more prevalent—especially post-COVID. So sometimes, the folks on the other lines are victims themselves. So, while it might be cathartic to give them a taste of their own medicine, it’s also good to keep in mind that many aren’t necessarily doing it of their free will.