In order to make these pranksters understand that fake calls can actually be dangerous and can really mess up lives, we gave them a taste of their own medicine. We created a fake erotic phone service that featured the numbers of those who most frequently make prank calls to the Volunteer Fire Department, and promoted it for 15 days through late-night ads on TV, Radio and Facebook.

“Fire Hotline Payback” became a way to teach pranksters that fake calls are not something to be played with, giving them a taste of their own medicine by inviting many horny callers to contact them in the late hours of the night.

We identified the phone numbers of those who most frequently made fake calls to the Volunteer Fire Department of Guatemala and created a campaign for a fake erotic phone service that featured these numbers on its ads. The ads pictured sexy women that with a sensual voice invited all “bad boys” to “play with fire” and call their Fire Hotline. We aired our ads for 15 days during late-night hours on TV, radio and Facebook, reaching our adult-male target market in an effective way.

Also, in order for the lesson to reach all pranksters, we held a press conference to create awareness of our campaign and massively communicate the potential consequences of making such calls to the Volunteer Fire Department: being awakened many times throughout the night by horny callers.

From the beginning of the campaign, the results were evident. The pranksters started receiving between 25-30 calls a day, especially at late hours of the night. The campaign immediately went viral and with the help of mass media we effectively reached more than 8 million people, automatically stopping thousands of pranksters from calling. Fake calls dropped by more than 35%, one month after the campaign was launched. But most importantly, our initiative persuaded the National Congress to present a law initiative that will make prank calling to emergency services a felony.