You’re next, Nigerian princes.
Last week, Jeannette Reyes, who is a news anchor in Washington, D.C., for “Good Day DC,” posted a video to her social media accounts in which she plays a perfect prank on a scam caller. The joke is so good that her video has received 1.6 million views on Twitter and 5.3 million views on TikTok.
Reyes starts out her video by showing that she’s currently receiving a scam call on her phone.
“I’m sick of them,” Reyes says to the camera. “So, let’s have a little fun.”
Reyes then picks up the call, puts it on speaker, and listens while the scammer claims he is from the FBI. He tells Reyes that there is a warrant out for her arrest and she owes over $2,000. Reyes then offers to pay the fake fee with a credit card.
She then begins to read out the numbers of a credit card by saying, “It’s 3, 2, 1, … Good evening. We are live on television right now with an investigation into scam callers. We have the FBI on the line. They are tracking this phone number as we speak. Sir, what is your full name again?” The caller then immediately hangs up.
She even made a version that people could use on their own when they get these kinds of calls:
Reyes told BuzzFeed that she made this video because — as with all of us — scam calls have been blowing up her phone for way too long.
“I know the anchor voice can be a little jarring when it comes out of nowhere, especially when you’re being told you’re on live television with the FBI on the line,” she told BuzzFeed. She also noted that it “took quite a few tries to get a human scammer” instead of a robocall in order to shoot her video. “I almost didn’t post it because I wanted the scammer to actually react. But I guess abruptly hanging up is just as good,” she said.
And if you want more of Reyes’ humor, check out another one of her viral TikToks ― in which she attempts to have a normal conversation with her husband at home in her anchor voice.