Explain this telephone scam to me.

[Phil Thien]

Thousands upon thousands of cell phone users were receiving a recorded call today in SE Wisconsin. The message said something like "We're sorry to inform you that your debit card has been deactivated, please press 1 if you'd like to reactivate it."

People that pressed "1" were apparently connected to 9-1-1, which somewhat overwhelmed the local 9-1-1 systems.

So what is the point of THAT?

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Cause disruption of emergency services in that area.

Why? I don't know.

[Frederick Skelly]

A bad practical joke, maybe - done "because they could"?

[Brian Elfert]

Supposedly hitting 1 on some cell phones activates the speed dial for that number and apparently speed dial #1 is often 911. I don't understand if the scam call hung up right away so the caller would hit one or what.

I remember now that one cell phone I had would dial 911 if any of the number buttons was held down for like five seconds. This was on an old flip phone.

[Brian Ashton]

some plimply face prepubescent idiot that took a break from looking at porn and instead downloaded a script and decided to play a stupid prank.

[Judson Green]

I received that call. Hung up on em (as I always do) and called my bank.

No idea of the intent.

[Moses Yoder]

I'll have to look up that script next time I need to rob a bank. You can bypass the bank alarms, now you can bypass a random stranger with a cell phone. The question remains, why do we do anything? My wife spends hours putting puzzles together and then promptly dismantles them after they are complete. She also spends countless hours and thousands of dollars on her counted cross stitch hobby. Then she complains about the amount of time I spend on my computer. Seriously, I don't understand any of it.

[Dan Hintz]

So what is the point of THAT?

Cause disruption of emergency services in that area.

some plimply face prepubescent idiot that took a break from looking at porn and instead downloaded a script and decided to play a stupid prank.

These are the two real possibilities, both equally likely.

To answer Ken's questions of "why?"... nothing creates a higher body count or higher level of panic than an area that cannot respond to an emergency when it happens. Imagine something like 9/11 if 911 was down at the time.

[Chuck Wintle]

Thousands upon thousands of cell phone users were receiving a recorded call today in SE Wisconsin. The message said something like "We're sorry to inform you that your debit card has been deactivated, please press 1 if you'd like to reactivate it."

People that pressed "1" were apparently connected to 9-1-1, which somewhat overwhelmed the local 9-1-1 systems.

So what is the point of THAT?

maybe to make a nuisance for everyone or to test the ability to perform this kind of scam. I have received the same type of call to press 1 for this or that. I just hang up. I have yet to receive the microsoft scam call.