A Chinese man spent almost US$3,000 on a ‘lucky’ phone number. It made his life a misery
- Zhejiang resident was bombarded with crank calls after his ‘auspicious’ phone number featured in a television drama
A man from eastern China who spent almost US$3,000 on an “auspicious” phone number found that it was making his life a constant misery after he was bombarded with crank calls when a TV production company used it in one of its dramas.
The Yangtse Evening Post reported on Monday that eight years ago the man surnamed Shen had spent 20,000 yuan on a phone number that ended with 888 because eight – which sounds like the word “fa”, meaning wealth and fortune – is considered a lucky number in China.
But it was used as the villain’s number in an episode of the TV drama Skynet Action broadcast in March this year and he began to receive so many calls that he was forced to keep his phone on permanent do-not-disturb mode.
“I did not pay much attention at first because many people around me got crank calls now and then.
“But later, some calls came at 1 or 2am and I could not sleep. Then I realised that something must be wrong,” the resident of Zhejiang province told the newspaper.
In April he spoke to one of the callers and asked the stranger at the end of the line how they had got hold of his number.