Netflix have decided to remove a real life person’s phone number mistakenly featured on the Korean hit series, Squid Game.
A South Korean woman, the owner of the phone number in real life has been bombarded with thousands of prank calls and text messages. The woman, identified as Kim Gil-young, also showed some of the messages she had received during a local interview. These messages included requests for invitations to join the Squid Game and go “from rags to riches”.
“After Squid Game aired, I have been receiving calls and texts endlessly, 24/7.” She explained in an interview with Koreaboo. “This is a number that I’ve been using for more than 10 years, so I’m quite taken aback. There are more than 4,000 numbers that I’ve had to delete from my phone and it’s to the point where due to people reaching out without a sense of day and night due to their curiosity, my phone’s battery is drained and turns off.”
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In the Netflix show, a card is given to all potential game participants. One side of the card has three shapes drawn on and on the other side is a phone number for potential game players to call. The interested players call and have to play a series of deadly children’s games for money. The potential winning pot for the players is 45.6 billion won ($38.31 million)
According to The Korea Times, another individual with a one digit difference has also been receiving calls. He told the outlet, “The stress from incessant prank calls is driving me crazy.”
Netflix have asked fans to stop the prank calls and the messages. On Wednesday, the streamer confirmed plans to edit out the number, “Together with the production company, we are working to resolve this matter, including editing scenes with phone numbers where necessary”.