Netflix’s Squid Game has been making waves for the past few weeks and the number of fans has been growing day by day.
While most of us are overjoyed to have another exciting series to binge watch over the weekend, a poor man in South Korea was deluged with anonymous calls due to the popular TV show.
In Squid Game, participants of the deadly game are recruited with a children’s game. The actor Gong Yoo plays the recruiter who tried to lure Sung Ki Hoon (played by Lee Jung Jae) to join the deadly competition by promising a huge cash reward.
To win the cash reward, they have to play a children’s game called ddakji. Once the game is over, Ki Hoon was handed a name card with a number on it.
Fans of the show cheekily tried dialling the number and didn’t realize the number is actually in service but it belonged to a man in South Korea.
According to Today Online, the man said he has been using that number for 10 years and the barrage of calls daily has affected his daily life.
“I’ve had to delete more than 4,000 numbers from my phone. It has come to the point where people are reaching out day and night due to their curiosity. It drains my phone’s battery and [it] turns off,” he said.
“At first, I didn’t know why, then my friend told me that my number came out in Squid Game.”
So, how did this happen? Korean numbers have 10 to 11 digits. The crew made the mistake of removing the first three digits of the area code. Although only 8 digits were shown in the show, the number is still in service and can be dialled.
At the moment, Netflix and the production company is in touch with the man to resolve the issue. For this oversight, Netflix can be fined up to 50 million won which is about RM 178,000.
