Anchor turns on her 'news voice' to scare off phone scammer: 'We are on live television'

Anyone with a phone has probably received a scam phone call a few times. You know the drill: there is either a problem with your bank or there is an amazing prize to be won. In any case, the person on the other end of the line desperately needs your social security number or credit card details. FOX 5 news anchor Jeannette Reyes is no stranger to this scam. After receiving several phone calls from scammers, she decided to "have a little fun" by turning on her "news voice" to scare them off. In a post uploaded to TikTok, Reyes shows us just how effective her strategy was, Bored Panda reports.

In the video, Reyes talks with "Jason O'Neil," a scammer trying to lure her into giving him $2,500. Since it was first posted, the video has been viewed by 6.3 million users. It has also received almost 2 million likes. "Okay, so I've been getting really annoyed with these people," she states in her "normal" voice. "I'm sick of them. So let's have a little fun." The news anchor proceeds to put the conversation on speaker and records the entire interaction. The scammer says hello and asks if he can speak to Reyes.

After confirming he was speaking to the right person, O'Neil claims she has "an outstanding warrant for [her] arrest due to an outstanding balance of [her] account of $2,792.33." Reyes responds, stating that she was unaware of the outstanding balance. She then asks if she could just pay the balance now. The scammer says that would be possible if she makes a payment right now, with a debit or credit card, of at least $2,500. The news anchor pretends to get a card ready and begins to read out the number on the card.

"It's 3, 2, 1..." She says, before switching over to her professional news anchor voice. "Good evening! We are live on television right now with an investigation into scam callers. We have the FBI on the line. They are tracking this phone number as we speak. Sir, what is your full name again?" As you would have guessed, the scammer hung up the phone immediately. Reyes had successfully pranked the phone scammer. Users who watched the video loved the idea so much that they requested another video with just her news anchor voice so they could play the same prank. The FOX 5 anchor obliged and soon uploaded a video so others could do the same.

Individuals in the comments section were full of praise for Reyes, and many others had a great laugh. One user commented, "Now that was hilarious." Another added, "This was amazing. The man's spirit probably left his body." Others called Reyes a "genius" and said her prank was the perfect way to handle phone scammers. Now, if you receive a phone call from your own Jason O'Neil, you know exactly what to do.