ClayKavalier
Banned
Anyone else familiar with PLA?
I found about it relatively recently. I get the impression that they were actually a decent-sized group of phone hackers in the 90s, but PLA now is basically a single guy who calls himself Brad Carter who runs a prank phone call show.
For years about once every few months I would randomly watch one of his YouTube videos and end up binging them for hours. I knew he had a podcast but never checked it out for whatever reason, until last year when I was looking for stuff to listen to at work. Now I often fall asleep listening to it, which apparently is pretty common amongst his listeners, he has an oddly soothing voice.
This is the first video of his I ever saw, which I found hilarious (note I was in my late teens when I first found this guy). He takes over incoming calls at a Walmart and just says outrageous and crass things to incoming callers. He has a few "genres" of calls that he does often, including my favorites where listeners provide him numbers for apartment complexes and he, again, calls and says outrageous and crass things. Probably his most unique prank is one where listeners leave notes on cars that say "Sorry I dinged your car" with his number.
Brad is a really interesting character. He's pretty open about his life, and wrote an autobiography available on the Phone Losers website (I bought the Kindle version but I'm pretty sure there's a free PDF available). He's done some terrible stuff in his life, he openly admits much of the book is bullshit but he lived for years off stolen credit card numbers and used some pretty clever scams to rip people off over the phone. He often comes across as a sociopath, living like a hermit, his only interaction with other people with people he's cheating over a phone.
But he has a strange code to how far he'll go with messing with people. He associates with other prank callers who will do some really shitty "pranks" like calling numbers from a vet and telling people their pets have died, or just spewing racist and misogynist language*. He refuses to do stuff like that, and typically makes sure to explain to people that he's a prank caller if they become truly upset. He seems legitimately disappointed with himself if he makes someone cry or ruins someone's day. A successful prank call in his mind should leave the recipient befuddled and give them a bizarre story to tell, not torment them.
It's just a really interesting juxtaposition to me. At times I feel guilty giving attention to someone so juvenile and callous, at others it's touching how much he appreciates his audience and how much he clearly likes it when a call ends with the recipient getting as much of a kick out of it as he does. Sometimes I feel for Brad, he's sort of clinging to this outdated mode of communication that he's obsessed with even though the world has moved. Then I remember that he's almost certainly ruined lives with his credit card theft and other scams.
I realize it's really selfish to give attention to this clearly faulted individual, but like I said I find the whole thing really fascinating. As pathetic as his life seems (you get the impression he truly is obsessed with phones and prank calls, and has seemingly only had retail jobs despite being in his 40s) it was definitely unique. And again, though I understand how horrible the consequences are part of me can't help but admire some of the schemes he came up with to rip people off.
Anyway, I Googled site:neogaf.com "phone losers" and was kind of shocked to see only one reference. He's obscure, most of his videos have fewer than 10,000 videos despite his posters them for years, but I figured there'd be at least a few people familiar with him here.
Curious whether there's any other listeners here, or what people think if they weren't previously familiar.
I found about it relatively recently. I get the impression that they were actually a decent-sized group of phone hackers in the 90s, but PLA now is basically a single guy who calls himself Brad Carter who runs a prank phone call show.
For years about once every few months I would randomly watch one of his YouTube videos and end up binging them for hours. I knew he had a podcast but never checked it out for whatever reason, until last year when I was looking for stuff to listen to at work. Now I often fall asleep listening to it, which apparently is pretty common amongst his listeners, he has an oddly soothing voice.
This is the first video of his I ever saw, which I found hilarious (note I was in my late teens when I first found this guy). He takes over incoming calls at a Walmart and just says outrageous and crass things to incoming callers. He has a few "genres" of calls that he does often, including my favorites where listeners provide him numbers for apartment complexes and he, again, calls and says outrageous and crass things. Probably his most unique prank is one where listeners leave notes on cars that say "Sorry I dinged your car" with his number.
Brad is a really interesting character. He's pretty open about his life, and wrote an autobiography available on the Phone Losers website (I bought the Kindle version but I'm pretty sure there's a free PDF available). He's done some terrible stuff in his life, he openly admits much of the book is bullshit but he lived for years off stolen credit card numbers and used some pretty clever scams to rip people off over the phone. He often comes across as a sociopath, living like a hermit, his only interaction with other people with people he's cheating over a phone.
But he has a strange code to how far he'll go with messing with people. He associates with other prank callers who will do some really shitty "pranks" like calling numbers from a vet and telling people their pets have died, or just spewing racist and misogynist language*. He refuses to do stuff like that, and typically makes sure to explain to people that he's a prank caller if they become truly upset. He seems legitimately disappointed with himself if he makes someone cry or ruins someone's day. A successful prank call in his mind should leave the recipient befuddled and give them a bizarre story to tell, not torment them.
It's just a really interesting juxtaposition to me. At times I feel guilty giving attention to someone so juvenile and callous, at others it's touching how much he appreciates his audience and how much he clearly likes it when a call ends with the recipient getting as much of a kick out of it as he does. Sometimes I feel for Brad, he's sort of clinging to this outdated mode of communication that he's obsessed with even though the world has moved. Then I remember that he's almost certainly ruined lives with his credit card theft and other scams.
I realize it's really selfish to give attention to this clearly faulted individual, but like I said I find the whole thing really fascinating. As pathetic as his life seems (you get the impression he truly is obsessed with phones and prank calls, and has seemingly only had retail jobs despite being in his 40s) it was definitely unique. And again, though I understand how horrible the consequences are part of me can't help but admire some of the schemes he came up with to rip people off.
Anyway, I Googled site:neogaf.com "phone losers" and was kind of shocked to see only one reference. He's obscure, most of his videos have fewer than 10,000 videos despite his posters them for years, but I figured there'd be at least a few people familiar with him here.
Curious whether there's any other listeners here, or what people think if they weren't previously familiar.
