Episode 271: The Strip Search Phone Call Scam
The phone rings. It's the police. Or is it? When a voice on the other end of the line asks you to obey him completely or face legal consequences, what would you do? Follow every order, no matter who you hurt? Or would you hang up and spare those around you? This week's episode is The Strip Search Phone Call Scam.
References
Netflix docuseries, Don't Pick Up The Phone (2022): https://www.netflix.com/title/81576846
Compliance (2012): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1971352/
Sources
A hoax most cruel: How a caller duped McDonald's managers into strip-searching a worker, Courier Journal: https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/investigations/2022/05/05/strip-search-hoax-kentucky-mcdonalds-fake-officer-scam/9598367002/
Acquittal in hoax call that led to sex assault, NBC News: https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna15504125
Agency Theory, Psychology Wizard: https://www.psychologywizard.net/agency-theory-ao1-ao2-ao3.html
Fla. man acquitted in Ky. case of McDonald's strip-search hoax, Star News Online: https://www.starnewsonline.com/story/news/2006/11/01/fla-man-acquitted-in-ky-case-of-mcdonalds-strip-search-hoax/30281036007/
Heroic Imagination Project:
https://www.heroicimagination.org/
How dozens of managers were conned into illegally strip-searching their employees, Vox: https://www.vox.com/xpress/2014/10/25/7062373/the-terrifying-con-that-got-60-managers-to-strip-search-their
Man Gets 5 Years for Role in Fast-Food Strip Search Ploy, ABC News: https://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/story?id=1728839&page=1
Man Jailed for Strip-searching McDonald's Worker Denied Probation, WAVE News: https://www.wave3.com/story/5310671/man-jailed-for-strip-searching-mcdonalds-worker-denied-probation/
McDonald Corporation v. Ogborn, Court of Appeals of Kentucky (2009):
https://caselaw.findlaw.com/ky-court-of-appeals/1505641.html
Modern Milgram? McDonald's Strip Search Prankster, Gina Perry Official Website: http://www.gina-perry.com/2012/09/16/modern-milgram-mcdonalds-strip-search-prankster/
Stanley Milgram Shock Experiment: Summary, Results, & Ethics, Simply Psychology: https://www.simplypsychology.org/milgram.html
Strip search victim describes ordeal, WAVE News: https://www.wave3.com/story/7104167/strip-search-victim-describes-ordeal/
Strip-Search Case Victim Awarded $6.1 Million, ABC News: https://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=3688563&page=1
'The Human Behavior Experiments': What Can Be Done in the Name of Obedience, New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/01/arts/television/01huma.html?_r=0
