British physicist R. V. Jones recorded two early examples of prank calls in his 1978 memoir Most Secret War: British Scientific Intelligence 1939–1945. The first was by Carl Bosch, a physicist and refugee from Nazi Germany, who … See more

Sometimes, prank callers are able to connect with political leaders. In December 2005, a commercially operated radio station in Spain (COPE – owned by a series of institutions affiliated with the Catholic Church) played a prank on Bolivian president … See more

Two early and famous prank phone calls are the "refrigerator" gag and the "Prince Albert" gag. The first involves calling a target to ask "is … See more

• Bomb threat
• Caller ID spoofing
• Email spoofing
• Fonejacker
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Prank callers can now be easily found through caller ID, so it is often asserted that since the 1990s, prank calls have been harder to accomplish and thus waning in popularity. Most telephone companies permit callers to withhold the identifying … See more

Ever since the opportunity has been available, there have been multiple internet radio stations dedicated to prank calls. Most of them feature a so-called "rotation" of prank … See more

Some prank calls are criminalized in many jurisdictions, for instance if the call involves calling the emergency services, while others may be protected as freedom of expression. … See more