When Your Phone Pranks Your Whole Family At 2 A.M.

A late-night ring sparks a family chain of phantom calls, raising questions about caller ID spoofing, Wi‑Fi quirks, and whether a bored insider is pulling strings. We test theories, phone a witness, and land on practical habits that calm tech anxiety without losing our humor.

• 2 a.m. ghost calls that ping family across carriers and phones
• competing theories from spoof apps to Wi‑Fi calling glitches
• AI voice scam risks and social engineering worries
• insider prank vs targeted hack probabilities
• router hygiene, passwords, and call setting checks
• simple verification rituals for urgent calls
• laughter, side quests, and why phones aren’t just phones

Remember, check your passwords, change it every six months

Transcript

Tech Anxiety Icebreaker

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Top Shelf Stories with Jay, Chris, and Tony.

SPEAKER_01 0:22

All right. So um, question for you guys. What um how is your uh anxiety towards technology? How has it been in the past I don't know, couple months, let's say?

SPEAKER_02 0:36

I don't know. I feel like I'm keeping up barely. Like head above.

SPEAKER_01 0:44

I know they are.

SPEAKER_02 0:45

I yeah, I don't care. But is it more Tony's head tape over every fucking piece of glass in this? He doesn't even have mirrors, man. They're all fucking electrical.

SPEAKER_01 0:54

It could be a two-way. Your your anxiety is still the same, nothing heightened, nothing crazy. No. So I never felt that way at all. I I didn't care if if you want to listen to my conversation, fucking go ahead. I don't give a shit. I'm not talking about fucking murdering a president or anything.

SPEAKER_04 1:13

Uh except for on this public forum. Yeah, exactly.

The 2 A.M. Phantom Calls Begin

SPEAKER_01 1:16

For this until the president's guest. Um yesterday around 2 a.m. I get a call from my brother. And uh he woke me up and I was like, hello? Hello? And he's like, What? What did you want? I'm like, what? He's like, you called me like two times. I'm like, no, I didn't. What are you talking about? It's like, yeah, you called me. Like, no, I didn't. Are you fucking drunk? What are you gonna crack? What are you what are you talking about? And he said he he he he like said I called him a bunch of times. He said Tim called him four times, so this is Tim is my my father-in-law that lives with us.

SPEAKER_02 1:59

Has your brother been experiencing or experimenting with methamphetamines at any recent time?

SPEAKER_01 2:05

No, no, he was he was drinking. He was drinking, but no, he's like, Tim called me four times, you call me a bunch of times, and like it's two in the morning, and he's calling me. I'm like, you know, it's uh usually when somebody calls you that late, you think something's wrong. So I'm like, I was kind of freaking out a little bit, like, okay, what the fuck's this?

SPEAKER_04 2:25

And then it'd be fucked up to call your friend or family member at two o'clock in the morning for for no actual reason it happens in movies all the time. What is the call like, hey, how's your sleeping? What are you having for dinner tomorrow?

SPEAKER_02 2:43

No, that happens in movies all the time, dude. It's really weird. I don't know, you'll notice it now, I think. Like super late night calls, yeah, for no fucking reason. You're like, what was that scene?

Family-Wide Ghost Dialing Escalates

SPEAKER_01 2:56

Why did they call each other right now? So my brother was sleeping at my parents' house that night, last night, and he goes up to um my nephew's room and asks him, uh, did you get a call or whatnot? And and he's like, Dan, you're get out of here, you're drunk, stupid. Um, and then Jaden got a call from my wife. My wife's phone called her, him, and then he's like, What the fuck's going on? And then he called Tracy back, my wife, and he was like, Did you call me? She's like, No, she was passed out sleeping. And now from last night until still today, everyone in our family is getting calls from each other to each other.

SPEAKER_02 3:41

Are you on a family plan?

SPEAKER_01 3:43

No, no. My dad was calling my brother. Uh, he didn't call him, he was snoring. Dan went in his room, he was fucking sleeping, snoring. Um my my mom called me at like 4 p.m. today and said, Did you call me? I was like, no, did not call you. So it's been going on just in our family, too. Everyone is calling everyone without calling them. And isn't that fucking weird? It's creepy.

SPEAKER_02 4:11

So why is first Trump and now this? I know. So why do you think this is happening, Jay?

SPEAKER_01 4:17

I don't know. Okay, first off, I called AT ATT today. So is everyone on ATT in the family? No, and there's another thing too, is not everybody has Apple iPhones either. I didn't say anything about F i. Because that saw a flip phone. I'm saying is iPhones are generally more safe and uh harder to get into and crack for Oh, you think you've been hacked? Yeah, of course. I mean, what what the fuck is how is this going on?

SPEAKER_02 4:47

Well, let me ask you. So, this mastermind of yours that's following the Viznouski family. Sorry, I didn't you can cut that out if you don't want the last name. I don't give a shit. And their main goal is to call each one in the family from the phone number at 2 a.m. Are they like do you think they're like sitting in a dark room recording and listening into these calls and laughing? Got him. Look at the kid thinks his aunt called him.

SPEAKER_04 5:21

So, so here's like a more important question, I guess. So what would you say this is like into the dozens of calls made?

SPEAKER_01 5:32

Oh, yeah, it's there's probably 40 or 50. Yeah, it's like nonstop.

SPEAKER_04 5:36

So 50 calls that nobody made. Yeah. And yet nobody answered.

SPEAKER_01 5:44

Uh, you answer, and then there's no one there who just hangs up. Just heavy breathing.

SPEAKER_02 5:50

It's just a bunch of guys gaggling.

SPEAKER_04 5:52

It's all just it's all just your kid. Your kid's just calling everybody. Hey, that's the first thing I thought.

SPEAKER_01 6:00

Just deleting the fucking call right away. That's the first thing I thought because he was over with his friend, and I wouldn't say they're hackers, but they know a lot about computers. My son built his own computer, and his friend brings his computer in his fucking screen over every time he sleeps over. It's like a fucking weirdness. So I went down there and I'm like, what the fuck are you guys doing? And they're like, they're smiling. What are you talking about? I'm like, are you guys fucking with our phones? How is it? How are you even doing that? If you're doing that, fucking show me how to do it. That's pretty fucking cool. How are you doing that? No, but they they fucking denied they denied it till today, till today. Who's denying it?

Hack, App Spoof, Or Teen Prank

SPEAKER_02 6:37

My my my son and his friend. Okay. And my brother. You think it's the 13-year-old boys in your basement that are doing this shit?

SPEAKER_04 6:44

It's like 17 now.

SPEAKER_02 6:45

Whatever. Oh, yeah, he's 17. You think they're doing it?

SPEAKER_01 6:48

No, I thought they might have done something to fuck around, maybe even clicking on a wrong site or something and then causing a fucking you know, malware or some type of virus.

SPEAKER_02 6:58

And the only thing this virus does is call other family members at odds of the night. It's so fucking happening. Has any of this happened since we've been together?

SPEAKER_01 7:07

No, just of like to right now today? Yeah. No, it hasn't happened at all. It has not happened. It's happened all night long. All night long. That's when it first started happening. And now it's been happening periodically throughout the day today. Have you are you guys Tim? Uh, my my my father-in-law, his phone doesn't even work. It's calling everybody. It's calling Dan. It's calling Tracy. It was calling Tracy, his daughter, last night.

SPEAKER_04 7:36

So how many, how many people you think that aren't in your immediate family do you think called? That's what I'm worried about.

SPEAKER_01 7:46

That's what I'm worried about.

SPEAKER_02 7:47

I'll throw it on your phone book right now and let's see if they got a call.

SPEAKER_04 7:50

You have an ex-girlfriend in your call log, and it's just you calling repeatedly.

SPEAKER_02 7:55

Yeah, it's just calling your 10 most called people. That's what I thought too.

SPEAKER_01 8:00

But you don't call too much Jaden. Why would you call your sister's kid? I don't. That's that's another thing I thought too. Is it called it's calling the favorites in your call? But it's not even your favorite.

SPEAKER_02 8:11

No, it's not. So it's obviously all people in your I haven't got any calls from any of you guys. Yeah, I've been waiting for a call from any wisdom. Steve, let's time out uh sidebar. Do you call anyone? Like I called Tony today or yesterday. Just text. I looked at my call log after that. I'm like, I haven't talked to that person in fucking three months. How are they still in my call log? Like, anyway, sorry. The phones, they're not even phones. That that's a sidebar, but we can go back. Okay, so I call people. So are you gonna call somebody else in the book? No, there's a scary. Are they coming from your phone?

SPEAKER_01 8:49

Uh they're not coming from only to my brother. I mean only so you're calling people so far, so far, only my brother's told me what do you want. Oh no, my my my mom actually did to you. She's like, What did you want? Like, what the fuck are you talking about? I didn't call you.

SPEAKER_02 9:03

Um, well, there's have you tried turning it off and then turning it back on?

SPEAKER_01 9:07

Dude, I did everything, man. I downloaded spamware. I downloaded other fucking oh now you're to the point of downloading.

SPEAKER_02 9:16

Now you're downloading the same programs. Is this criminal mastermind gonna try to fucking find your pin and go into your bank account at least? What is it doing? What is this?

SPEAKER_01 9:26

So weird. Okay, I know there's a scam out there where you can actually take artificial intelligence, uh, someone else's voice and call a family member and say, hey, I heard they did that in a press conference. I got an accident. I need you to wire me some money, and it's actual that person's voice. So what they're doing right now is they're recording our voices saying, Who the fuck you call? Why the fuck you call me? What are you and getting our voice?

SPEAKER_02 9:48

Knowing the relation and then to connect all of the voice. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:52

And my brother's my brother is really crazy about this kind of stuff. He's like, hey, is the letters of my name red or white? I'm like, I don't what? What are you talking about? On the phone, does it show red or white? I'm like, it's white. My show is red. That means I'll be recorded, Jay. I know this. I got friends that know a lot about the internet.

Call Waiting From Yourself

SPEAKER_04 10:11

So here's a question. So this is uh, well, this I guess is more of a story, but so back in the day when my brother started dating his baby mama, she had a phone that was paid for by her parents, and they had it set up in such a way that it could only make and receive calls from their phone number or emergency calls. So if their number was, you know, one two three four, the phone could only make calls to one two three four and only receive calls from one two three four.

SPEAKER_01 10:56

I don't know what the fuck are you even saying.

SPEAKER_04 10:58

Her phone was essentially a walkie-talkie, it was like her parents' phone.

SPEAKER_02 11:04

Right? So she couldn't call anyone else. Right.

SPEAKER_04 11:06

Not even Joe? She couldn't call no, she couldn't call Joe, and Joe couldn't call her on it. And she's like a bug out bug? Yeah. She has children at this point with him? Not with him. She had a child, but um so Joe figured out some kind of app where he could call and it would give the caller ID her parents' number. So he could call her through this app. That sounds ridiculous. Yeah. And I mean, this is this is more than ten years ago.

SPEAKER_01 11:43

Oh, yeah, I know what you're talking about.

SPEAKER_04 11:45

So yeah, so he could call me and it would show up in my caller ID as whatever number he decided to put in it. Yeah, of course. And it was like he beat the system to use up his girls any time minutes.

SPEAKER_01 11:59

Are you orchestrating an orchestra right now? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:02

Like just changing the time on your Nokia phone so it's after 9 p.m. or something.

SPEAKER_04 12:11

So my brother beat the system with that, but maybe there's like a resurgence of this app where who are somebody who the fuck's doing it in my somebody in your family is doing this to fuck with everybody. He's just making calls and it's showing somebody else's number calling them every single time.

SPEAKER_01 12:32

I know it's weird too, is it's there has been times where because my brother and I were talking all day today, on and off, because he's paranoid as shit. And when we're talking to each other, all of a sudden we start calling each other. We have call waiting. Call waiting. I've got yeah, I'm not joking. I don't know. Call on it. Screenshots are waiting. Dan calling me. He has call waiting, me calling him when we're talking.

SPEAKER_02 12:58

I don't believe it. I swear I want to make this up, dude. This is where's the call, buddy? It's weird as you show me the call up. Do you want to talk?

SPEAKER_04 13:04

This is somebody in your family. I want no what we can who has all your guys' numbers. You know who this is? Is this involved in this? In bed? This is that bro, that cousin of yours. How are they out? This is that fucking cousin of yours. I know this is a Tyler move. Yeah, where's Tyler in this? Tyler. Yeah, he will run that joke.

SPEAKER_02 13:25

He will secretly run that joke on his free time at three in the morning for years and then finally fucking snag you on it. Absolutely, that's him. Let me I've known this kid since he was my fucking height. Can I get Dan on the phone to tell you a little bit about it? At least I think that would be a good idea because I'm not buying the fucking shit. Just a little bit.

Suspects, Wi‑Fi Theories, And Passwords

SPEAKER_01 13:49

I mean, he's not he he's not that much of a talker. Um, but it's the weirdest fucking I'm like, I'm not kidding you. We're on the phone with each other and we're calling each other. I'm like, what the fuck are you doing? I'm not you know I'm not doing anything. I'm talking to you. Call Daniel.

SPEAKER_04 14:14

Is it red or white? Is it red or white? It's white.

SPEAKER_02 14:20

You'll freak out right away, dude.

SPEAKER_01 14:40

Dan, I'm just joking. Did I scare you?

SPEAKER_03 14:43

No.

SPEAKER_01 14:47

Because he sounds so unabused by your bullshit.

SPEAKER_02 14:51

Because Dan, remember Dan, I want you to know this call is being recorded. This core this call is being recorded.

SPEAKER_01 14:57

No, Dan, I'm talking about we're talking about all the spam shit that's going on. It's freaky, isn't it?

SPEAKER_03 15:02

Not really.

SPEAKER_01 15:03

What do you mean, not motherfucker?

SPEAKER_04 15:05

That's not the story Jay just told.

SPEAKER_03 15:07

Last night at two in the morning.

SPEAKER_04 15:08

He said you're freaking out. He said you're freaking out.

SPEAKER_03 15:12

I'm not freaking out. You were freaking out.

SPEAKER_02 15:14

Is your name on your phone red or white?

SPEAKER_01 15:20

What does that mean?

SPEAKER_03 15:21

I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 15:23

What you see is not talking. Are you afraid to talk because we're on the podcast? I just woke you up. Well, how about I call you back when you're awake? I can tell. I just thought it was uh No, but Dan, we were talking all day about this. I don't know why you're because you just woke up. I picked the wrong time. This was not a great time.

SPEAKER_03 15:55

It's weird.

SPEAKER_01 15:58

Oh, I had a oh, okay. What the fuck? That's Ben texting me. Fuck, was that John Sakata? Uh no, remember Jaden was freaking out. He was he was he's getting all freaked out and scared?

SPEAKER_03 16:16

Yeah, he gets scared of everything.

SPEAKER_01 16:18

And then dad called you, you went upstairs because you were sleeping over and he was snoring.

SPEAKER_03 16:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:24

Isn't that fucking weird?

SPEAKER_03 16:26

Two times and his phone's been off.

SPEAKER_01 16:28

And Tony or uh um Tracy's father called you how many 18 times and his phone's not even on.

SPEAKER_04 16:37

Oh man, I gotta get you another one. You know, Dan, I can say for sure and without a doubt, this is somebody in your family who has all your contacts fucking with you.

SPEAKER_03 16:50

I don't know who it would be.

SPEAKER_04 16:52

Well, I have a theory. I think I think it's that that fucking cousin of yours that guy's problems.

SPEAKER_03 17:02

Tyler.

SPEAKER_04 17:03

Yeah, if that's even his real name.

SPEAKER_01 17:06

No, it was funny because uh my um my son sprang was sleeping over and dad was yelling at yelling at him because he thought he did it. He's like, I'm gonna throw you down the fucking stairs if you fucking call me ever again. Never lose my number. I done. Yeah, it was uh Liam was like laughing really hard telling us the story to the uh when I got home from work. I was dying laughing because he was he was like, Oh yeah, he was gonna he said he was gonna beat me up. Alright, man, I'll let you go back to sleep.

SPEAKER_03 17:40

You're laughing.

SPEAKER_01 17:41

Yeah, I know. That's what I thought too. And they like they said, they're kind of into the computer shit. He's in his room all day, every day.

SPEAKER_03 17:47

I know. I know. He's the one that's the number one. I'm suspicious about him.

SPEAKER_01 17:56

All right. I'll let you go back to sleep. Together. Oh, I didn't get him in a good time.

SPEAKER_02 18:02

Yeah, I don't know, man. He did he did validate a lot of your story. So I'm gonna give it to you that this is happening to you. I don't know why this is happening to you or what the objective is. Um, yeah, and that's why And so far the only provable theory I got is Tony's theory.

SPEAKER_01 18:23

That it was Tyler. I guarantee 100% it's not him. He doesn't, he's first off, he has no time. Secondly, he would uh how much time does he need to just be well, like he's self-employed, right?

Live Check-In With Dan

SPEAKER_04 18:37

Yeah, yeah. So, you know, he's super busy. I mean, is that you have okay, yeah. He's too busy to just like his number quick. With his app, just pick up his phone, open an app, and just start fucking ringing wiz newskys. He is one that knows all of the numbers. Would he would he have Dan's uh not Dan? He wouldn't have Tim's number. He would yeah, Tim Tim's a wild card.

SPEAKER_02 19:07

He wouldn't have Tim's number, and there's no way Tim has a lot of time on his hands. Free apps still work on the Wi-Fi. He was pretty crafty. Wi-Fi works, man. I don't know about the phone.

SPEAKER_01 19:19

That's a Wi-Fi call, probably. I think someone hacked into our Wi-Fi because if you think about this way, and I put this into perspective. What's your password? I put this into perspective is the fact that it only happened to everyone at my house and my parents' house. Only at my house and my parents' house.

SPEAKER_02 19:37

Do you guys have the same password?

SPEAKER_01 19:39

We don't have the same anything. I'm just saying. Why? Dude, it's the weirdest fucking thing. It's fucking Twilight Zone and shit.

SPEAKER_04 19:48

I feel like if your kid's in the computers, your Wi-Fi password gets changed almost daily.

SPEAKER_01 19:54

No, I I still stick with the same one that came on the box when you bought it. Oof. Oof. Orange cabinet with golden handle 7-5. The weirdest password you'll ever get. Yeah. So weird. So yeah, no, um, I I it freaked me out a little bit. I'm a little bit more spic skeptic about shit, but I again, what are they gonna steal? My voice, my conversations.

SPEAKER_02 20:21

We have hours and hours of recorded material available on the internet if we're not.

SPEAKER_04 20:26

Not open our voice. Not even AI wants to listen to the AI voice. The AI voice is ridiculous.

SPEAKER_01 20:36

Even AI wants to listen to our podcast.

SPEAKER_04 20:38

AI gets like five minutes, and then they're like, what the fuck?

SPEAKER_01 20:46

Oh man. So um yeah, I would uh be careful with your phone and your Wi-Fi. Remember, check your passwords, change it every six months. Fuck, don't do that. That's fucking retarded or stupid. I do it just to fuck with my kid.

SPEAKER_04 21:01

He's like, Dad, every time I change it, he yells, Ma, did you pay the bill?

SPEAKER_01 21:10

Did you tell did you tell him hey, did you check the password? Did you punch it in? Do it again. I'm doing it like eight times until you tell, oh yeah, I changed it.

SPEAKER_04 21:18

I turn it into a scavenger hunt for little pieces of the password.

SPEAKER_01 21:25

If you clean your room, you may find your password. Or a section of it. Alright, so this is uh this is the episode called Password Hunt. Hope you liked it.

SPEAKER_02 21:39

Mike Hunt. Mr. Hunt? Michael? Mike Hunt? Are you available? Mike Hunt. Alright.

SPEAKER_01 21:48

That's a Mike Hunt. I get it. It took me a little bit, actually. It took like three. I know it's a three of Mike Hunt's to get what you're saying.

SPEAKER_02 21:58

I know you don't like to talk about vagina, Jay. What did you say? This is Top Shelf Stories. Thank you for tuning in. We'll see you next time. Boom, boom.

SPEAKER_01 22:22

I've had these vapes for a while. The thing is, I find them. Like, I'll charge one. I'm like, fuck, where'd that one go?

Practical Paranoia And Password Games

SPEAKER_02 22:31

For those at home, he's got four of them here. They look to all be different flavors. Are they all different flavors? Except for the two green, yeah. And he decided just now to totally fist them off for it. Well, I don't want to have to go to the car just in case someone dies. Steam gun style. Sweet cloud, bro.

SPEAKER_01 22:51

I'm not aiming for clouds and I'm all yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:55

You used to have quite the machine.

SPEAKER_04 22:57

Yeah, I'm really glad you guys aren't. I mean, it looked like you were carrying around an old school Atari with you with that old one. Yeah, I know.

SPEAKER_01 23:05

Like I could get I could uh plug it into the TV and see my my vape cloud, my usage.

SPEAKER_04 23:12

You could get HBO with that vape.

SPEAKER_02 23:15

Did you see when the internet went out? Were you guys part of that day?

SPEAKER_04 23:19

Huh?

unknown 23:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:21

The whole internet went out of there. Like there's all the blackouts. Yeah. Uh or whatever the fuck it was. Conspiracy. Sorry. I have something in my throat. Yeah. Uh there was all these people who were making jokes about how, like, god damn it, now I can't even open my refrigerator. They had like that blue screen that was everyone had. And the same thing with like a toaster. It's like, god damn it, I guess I'm going to Starbucks.

SPEAKER_01 23:47

Well, when the in the old days when the power went out, my dad would yell at us for opening the fridge. Oh, yeah. Because you let all the cold air out.

SPEAKER_02 23:54

Yeah, it doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_01 23:54

I do that with the power on.

SPEAKER_02 23:57

What? You just leave the fridge open. The sound of that refrigerator uh magnet vinyl. Just humming. Just the sound of it unsuctioning from the main refrigerator as the door. You can hear that as a father from at least three to four rooms away. Shut the fridge! Get what you want and get it.

SPEAKER_04 24:27

It's a bottom roller one. Everything's melted down the front of the fridge. Fuck it. We were gone for the weekend a couple weeks ago, and he left that thing open the whole fucking time. We were gone. Oh my god. Did you have many? And it's just cracked over it's cracked open like a half inch. Yeah, so the thing's stuck. Everything's still frozen in it, but you could tell like the popsicles are starting to get a little juicy. Well, the thing was running overtime.

SPEAKER_02 24:55

It was for four days. It was trying to freeze your entire kitchen.

SPEAKER_01 24:59

Holy shit. I was at someone's house and I accidentally blew the brick or outside. This is a guy's, he's he's he's a rich dude, so he has a giant What's his name? Brick you blew? What's his name? I brew his I blew his brick. I don't know. One of his one of his I thought his name was Brick. Go on. And he had this giant freezer with thousands and thousands of dollars of meat, and they were out of town, and I didn't know that it was connected to the went and stole some meat, obviously.

SPEAKER_04 25:27

You blew the circuit.

Vapes, Outages, And Smart Appliance Jokes

SPEAKER_01 25:29

To the freezer, yeah. Oh, dude, they sue your ass for a cow. No, he's like you owe me a few. He's kind of family, so he was like, what the fuck? What did you do that for? Like, I'm doing a purpose, and I didn't know it was connected to your freezer. Maybe shouldn't have a fucking generator connected to that shit when you have thousands of the freezer, it was as big as me. Okay, fine. Big as Tony. It was a big freezer.

SPEAKER_04 25:54

That's not that big of a freezer.

SPEAKER_01 25:56

Yeah, dude. If you could put you in the freezer, all that.

SPEAKER_02 26:00

I'm really happy you caught the big as you joke before we could remember about it.

SPEAKER_01 26:05

I know. I I switched, I switched it up. Alright, let's get into the show. Alright, here's the show. What's the show? Well, how do we even start the show?

SPEAKER_00 26:18

We want eyes on the air. We could show without compare. Stories that'll make you laugh. Jokes and tales on their behalf. Download now and take a ride.

SPEAKER_01 26:30

Which one is this? Is this yours? That's it. I doubt you just stopped it right before the chorus. That's it.