Leave it to Alexa to keep a dear old grandmother from being scammed by telemarketers. Or, better yet, leave it to IRLRosie to scam the scammers scamming the grandmothers.
The popular YouTuber played a savvy prank on a telemarketer in a new video shared on Wednesday. As seen in the clip, she pretended to not only be an elderly woman named Mrs. Gersh, but also an Amazon Alexa home device, all at the same time.
In the video, which was recently published on IRLRosie's YouTube page, a telemarketer calls attempting to snag a Mrs. Gersh's email and credit card information by attempting to sell her a $100 voucher, but what the sales rep doesn't know is that she's actually speaking to Rosie, who alternates between the voices throughout the call, playing both a confused senior citizen and an Alexa device refusing to cooperate.
"I told you my email—I made my password too easy and so my son cut me off," Rosie says, posing as the elderly woman when the telemarketing scammer attempts to steal her information. "My son made me forget the email address because I was giving it out willy nilly and I got a couple viruses on my computer."
Meanwhile, "Alexa" continues to butt into the conversation, repeating a few phrases that the device is programed to say when a command is unclear. "I'm sorry, I didn't get that," Rosie says, sounding exactly like the smart device.
Rosie doesn't make it easy for the caller during the exhaustive nearly 20-minute conversation, but the telemarketer does finally score the information needed to send the elderly woman a $100 gift card. At the end of the video though, Rosie reveals she actually gave the telemarketer the mailing address of a local police station and a fake credit card number.
"How did that card go through? It was a fake card. And the police station is going to get that package," Rosie claims afterward, in between laughs.
The video made the rounds on social media with many people commenting on how well the YouTuber is able to disguise her voice and mimic the home smart device.
"I am so invested in the drama between Mrs. Girsch and her Alexa," one fan wrote on Reddit.
"Man, you're good at switching voices fast! Like even interrupting yourself. Lol good stuff," another person wrote.
Some of the folks praising the video were just happy to see someone finally besting pesky telemarketers.
"This is great. Glad to see some people out there standing up to scammers and sticking it to them for a change. You're great at this, BTW. Keep up the good work because it's super entertaining and a great public service. And the fact that you can keep this up and do it on the fly like that is amazing. Improv at its finest. Well done," one fan commented.
The voice actor has a penchant for pranking telemarketers with her ensemble of characters. The elderly Irma Gersh and Alexa are often in the rotation on her many YouTube videos.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Michigan native, Janice Williams is a graduate of Oakland University where she studied journalism and communication. Upon relocating to New ... Read more
