Phone Scams

Audacy

Listeners write in or call in the Z Morning Zoo and ask them to prank call someone they know. The prank calls can be anywhere from kids trying to prank their parents to employees trying to prank call their bosses. read less

Our Editor's Take

Despite what the title might suggest, Phone Scams is not a true crime podcast. It doesn't tell the stories of con artists hacking people's accounts on social media. It does not reveal fraudsters and Ponzi schemes meant to steal people's life savings. Instead, it's a comedy podcast where the host is the scammer.

Phone Scams is a weekly segment on a radio show on Z104. This American morning program airs every day between 5 am and 10 am. Hosts Shaggy and Natalia talk about pop culture and the latest news and share anecdotes. They also have segments like "Dirty Work Wednesday" and "War of the Roses." This podcast only focuses on the popular Friday segment.

This segment has a simple premise. The podcast host calls an unsuspecting person under false pretenses. Their friends or family members have provided their phone numbers to the radio station. They also gave the host some details from their lives to help make the prank believable. For instance, in one episode, a woman wrote in saying someone was coming to clean up their pool. She wanted to trick her husband using that information. So, the host pretended to be the pool cleaner, saying he found human feces in the water. In another episode, a man wanted to make fun of his brother on his birthday. The brother doesn't like attention, so the man asked the host to call with a singing telegram.

The stories on Phone Scams are elaborate, surprising, and often ridiculous. In one episode, the host pretends to be a call center representative with anger issues. In another, he's calling from tech support to talk about the person's porn addiction. Other scam calls pretend to be from a person's school, travel agent, or Ticketmaster. There was even one occasion when the host pretended to call from the doctor's office. He was reaching out to get a woman's permission to have students in the room during her gynecological exam.

The Phone Scams podcast aired its last episode at the end of 2023. But there's an archive of several years for listeners to enjoy when they need something to cheer them up.

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Society & CultureSociety & Culture

Episodes