the Vodafone Game

My brother introduced me to the Vodafone Game in the course of a very drunken evening.

Here is how you play:

1. Dial a number you know to be a Vodafone number. Try 07909, 07990 or 07867 followed by 6 digits.
2. Having dialled the number, one of three things will happen:
   • The phone will ring
   • The Vodafone wench will tell you "leave a message"
   • A user-recorded message will tell you "leave a message"
   If It rings, you might want either hang up or have a good excuse ready. If the Vodafone wench answers, proceed to the next step with confidence. If it's a user-recoreded message, you may not be in luck, but you could give it a go.
3. While the greeting plays, press 9. You will then be asked for a PIN. The default Vodafone PIN is 3333
4. Now, you can do what you like. Press 1 for help with the options.

You can listen to and delete messages, even change the outgoing greetings.

Moral Dillema

You might be really uncomfortable with this idea. I must admit, I only find it funny if I'm drunk. You might want to ignore this node. You might want to downvote it (but think twice :-)
If you do play the Vodafone Game, you might consider yourself an ethical hacker, doing so only to raise awareness. Equally, you might fancy doing it for Natalie, and just going hog wild with the delete key and recording burping noises.

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Only play the Vodafone game late at night
When playing the Vodafone Game, the best time to play it is late at night, or early in the morning. This way, you have the best chance of the victim of the 'game' being tucked up in bed. If they are asleep, they are much less likely to answer the phone. This is what we want.

My brother's favourite approach with a late night Vodafone answerer was to pretend to be a TV or radio quiz host. The good thing is, people who answer a mobile phone late are usually at a pub, party or club, and don't even mind if they rumble that a joke is being played.

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Update: My brother informs me that the Vodafone game is no longer possible due to some (very sensible) changes in the Vodafone voicemail setup-process.