Breaking news: the hit Netflix show Squid Game isn't real, but a key phone number in the series definitely is.
Pranksters have reportedly flooded a South Korean man's phone with calls to get in on the series' game after his number appeared on a business card in the first episode.
In the show, calling the number will give you a chance to play a bunch of high-stakes children's games for cash, with deadly consequences awaiting those who lose.
In the real world, calling the number will give you a man in his 40s who's really sick and tired of hearing about Squid Game.
Squid Game | Official Trailer | Netflix Netflix | YouTube
The man told South Korea's SBS News that he gets approximately 4,000 calls a day and that his phone rings at all hours of the day and night. It even rang a few times during the interview, SBS reports.
He told broadcaster MBC that he can't change his number because he uses it for work, the South China Morning Post reports. In the meantime, he hopes that Netflix will do something about the situation.
Changing your phone number sucks, but someone's already offering this man US$85,000 to give it up.
That someone is Huh Kyung-young, a politician who recently announced that he was running for president.
"I heard that the owner of the phone number showed on a business card in Squid Game is suffering serious damage from prank calls," he wrote on Facebook earlier this week, according to the Korea Times. "I would like to buy the number for 100 million won."
American productions typically avoid this problem by using fake phone numbers in TV and movies. Those numbers often begin with the digits 555, which are not in service in North America.
But this isn't the first time that someone's real digits have been given out on screen.
Back in 2019, an Indian man was flooded with phone calls from people looking for Sunny Leone, the Canadian-born Bollywood star, after she gave out his number as her own in a film.
Narcity reached out to Netflix about the Squid Game number but it's unclear if any changes will be made.
The series has blown up since it hit Netflix on September 17, and it's now on track to become one of the streamer's most-watched series ever.
"Squid Game will definitely be our biggest non-English-language show in the world, for sure," Ted Sarandos, Netflix's co-CEO, told Deadline on Monday. "It's only been out for nine days, and it's a very good chance it's going to be our biggest show ever."
In other words, those phone calls likely won't be stopping any time soon.
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