# Do obscene phone calls exist anymore? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 23, 2003, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-obscene-phone-calls-exist-anymore/209127 "2003-10-23T15:11:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2003, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-obscene-phone-calls-exist-anymore/209127/21 "2003-10-24T10:10:31Z")
I haven’t gotten any since college (early 90’s) when we had **Action Man**. Action Man was something of a legend on campus, as he’d apparently been in, well, action long enough to be a running joke in a number of school publications by my freshman year. After hearing so much about him, I actually felt kind of honored when he called me during my sophmore year. Over the next couple of years I heard from him three more times, but two of my roomies never got the call, and felt kind of left out. His MO was to call random male students and ask “you want some action?” The first time he called, I was too confused to say anything other than “uh, no thanks” (Momma raised me to always be polite) before I realized who it was, but he’d already hung up. The next time he called, I said “yeah, sure” but “you want some action?” seemed to be the extent of his repetoire. He was never obscene, abusive, violent or even very loud, he called during the daytime and he never called the same number more than once in a semester. All in all, he was a model crank caller. **2trew** , what on earth is the Worst Case Scenario? ---
**Author:** ![sycorob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@sycorob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sycorob)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2003, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-obscene-phone-calls-exist-anymore/209127/22 "2003-10-24T13:39:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sublight \* > \*\ ***2trew** , what on earth is the Worst Case Scenario? \*\* I second this. The Capital Lettering makes me curious. ---
**Author:** ![3trew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/13edae/32.png) [@3trew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3trew)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2003, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-obscene-phone-calls-exist-anymore/209127/23 "2003-10-24T15:42:08Z")
Buddy liked to call in and tell people about the horrible things he was doing to the little girl he’d kidnapped, complete with sound effects, and suggest that he’d be dropping around sometime real soon to do the same to their kids. He had some technical and social engineering skills that allowed him to concentrate on one call centre and provide convincing details. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2003, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-obscene-phone-calls-exist-anymore/209127/24 "2003-10-25T13:31:59Z")
:eek: ---
**Author:** ![Krisfer\_the\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Krisfer\_the\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Krisfer_the_Cat)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2003, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-obscene-phone-calls-exist-anymore/209127/25 "2003-10-25T21:34:20Z")
:eek: :eek: I never have got an obscene call… I feel so out of the cultural loop! ---
**Author:** ![mrsface](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a9adbd/32.png) [@mrsface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrsface)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2003, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-obscene-phone-calls-exist-anymore/209127/26 "2003-10-25T21:44:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Krisfer the Cat \* > \*\* > > I never have got an obscene call… I feel so out of the cultural loop! \*\* Snap - without wanting to trivialise the issue (I’m sure the calls must be scary), I’ve never had so much as a heavy-breather in all my years as an adult female. What’s wrong with me, huh? Isn’t my number sexy enough or something?! ---
**Author:** ![Diane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/2acd7d/32.png) [@Diane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diane)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2003, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-obscene-phone-calls-exist-anymore/209127/27 "2003-10-26T05:03:20Z")
I can’t help but feel sorry for todays kids. They don’t know the fun of prank “is your refrigerator running” calls. Ahhh, the good old days. ---
**Author:** ![MamaHen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c89c15/32.png) [@MamaHen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MamaHen)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2003, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-obscene-phone-calls-exist-anymore/209127/28 "2003-10-26T05:21:51Z")
In 2001 I had several obscene phone calls. It was always the same young boy and he had a really strong accent. Well he suddenly stopped calling so I called the number on my caller id. I was worried about him. He was fine, he had gotten a girlfriend and didn’t have time to call me anymore. At least I knew he was out there safely telling someone he wanted to touch her “pirates” and not mine anymore 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![LolaCocaCola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7cd45c/32.png) [@LolaCocaCola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LolaCocaCola)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2003, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-obscene-phone-calls-exist-anymore/209127/29 "2003-10-26T10:05:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by MamaHen \* > \*\*In 2001 I had several obscene phone calls. It was always the same young boy and he had a really strong accent. Well he suddenly stopped calling so I called the number on my caller id. I was worried about him. He was fine, he had gotten a girlfriend and didn’t have time to call me anymore. At least I knew he was out there safely telling someone he wanted to touch her “pirates” and not mine anymore 🙂 \*\* Haw! ---
**Author:** ![The\_Griffin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@The\_Griffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Griffin)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2003, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-obscene-phone-calls-exist-anymore/209127/30 "2003-10-26T12:26:02Z")
In UK we dont have caller ID ---
**Author:** ![Dignan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f07891/32.png) [@Dignan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dignan)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2003, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-obscene-phone-calls-exist-anymore/209127/31 "2003-10-26T17:43:03Z")
Occassionally there will be a report in the school paper about one of the dorms on campus receiving a string of obscene calls. Neighboring rooms would get consecutive calls, because a row of rooms would have numbers like 0222, 0223, 0224 … The two most recent cases were calls being made to young women in the freshman dorm. The guys making the calls ended up getting caught. Surprisingly the guys were in New York and the other in Arizona. They were calling a school in the Midwest. Back in the day, end of the 80’s to early-90’s a friend of mine’s older sister (junior high age) would babysit my sister and me. She would bring her brother over with her and we would make prank (or is it crank? Prank makes more sense to me) phone calls. Boy were we surprised when caller ID first came out. The guy called us back and interrupted our laughter. It wasn’t like we made any obscene calls, just stupid stuff like speaking with accents are asking dumb questions. Good times. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Wright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Steve\_Wright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_Wright)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2003, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-obscene-phone-calls-exist-anymore/209127/32 "2003-10-27T01:31:24Z")
**Griffin** , not exactly, but 1471 will get you the number that called you (unless they’ve blocked that) … I’ve had the occasional heavy breather … I must be a terrible disappointment to them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-obscene-phone-calls-exist-anymore/209127.md?page=1)