I‘m sure everyone has that moment when you’re picking your ideal phone number at your preferred telecom service provider.
Some people pick based on memorability, others check if it contains their birthdays or their favourite numbers.
And then some pick based on auspiciousness.
One particularly auspicious number for Chinese is the number “8”, which sounds similar to the word “Fa” in Mandarin.
So, a phone number that ends with “888” would be considered an extremely lucky phone number for a Chinese.
And 8 years ago, a man named Shen from Zhejiang, China purchased this phone number ending in “888”.
And all was good.
Until March of 2019.
In an episode of a TV drama “Skynet Action” which was broadcast in March earlier this year, Shen’s number was unintentionally featured as the TV drama’s villain’s phone number.
The luck that came with this phone number must have run out because the coming days were made a living hell by this phone number.
He started to receive prank calls, but he did not think much of it as even people around him frequently received prank calls.
But then the prank calls started to come at even 1 or 2 am, disturbing his sleep. This is when he knew something was wrong.
Discovery
In April, he spoke to one of the callers and found out how so many people were getting his phone number.
Understandably, he was less than pleased. He is so unhappy about the fact that it was a criminal’s number in the TV drama, which has negative effects on his image.
He had also stated that he intends to sue the production company, as well as Youku, the video platform which broadcast the show.
Not The First Time
This is not the first of such cases, as in February this year, a man successfully sued the production firm Xinli for using his phone number in a TV drama “The Revolution of Our Love” and was awarded 35,000 yuan.
While the distribution company for TV drama Skynet Action has issued a public apology on their Weibo account, Shen claims that it is too late and wants them held accountable for the harassment he had suffered.
The spokesperson of the distributors also said that the firm had tried contacting Shen personally via phone calls and messages, but he was unresponsive.
To be fair, I don’t think Shen will take too kindly to any unknown numbers from now on.
Over in TikTok, there’s a drama involving property agents that’s caused by us. Here’s what happened:
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