Crazy. This show ran in Brazil for hours straight. What caught my attention was the amount of time the presenter teased the audience but no one called.
When I was a kid in Brazil, we had these TV programs all day. One time I discovered the answer and asked for my parents to call the show so we could get some money. They said that we would have to pay the call and answer 5 different questions. If we get one wrong we were eliminated, so they didnt called. I've gotten so frustated because I knew the asnwer. Now I realize that show is a lie and I'm greatfull that my parents didnt call the show.
@@davesy6969 one phonecall and I had to put my number in then they called back up and I guessed the right word then i had to pick a number and won 170€ if I took number next to it I would win jackpot which was like 10.000€
They actually posted the Czech version of this video on their Czech UA-cam channel. That brought attention to the show and it was subsequently cancelled shortly after that :)
I remember watching a national version of this same scam as a kid, over 20 years ago, in Argentina. Though there weren’t small prizes given in the beginning, there was only a huge pool prize. And I’m almost certain that the people they let through the phone were members of the staff, cause the games had the stupidest questions you can imagine and everyone just had to get the answer wrong! As a kid I remember spending all of my old cells credit trying to get through once 😓
We had similar "games" in Greece a few years back. Our twist was that the questions and the quizzes were stupid easy but even so there were some people connecting, saying the wrong answer, and that failure increased the prize. It was so frustrating to many people that made them wanna call and give the right answer. We weren't even getting a magazine.
the same here in Brazil, but how it works is slightly different. The show makes you think that no one is calling and the line is empty and you just need to call to enter the show to have a chance to win the prize but it doesnt work that way. When you call the number, they ask A LOT of stupid questions and they say that you need to win a certain amount of points through the day to have a chance to be called on the show. I have to be very clear that this information is NOT said on the show itself, only on the phone. The scammers dont gain money by the AMOUNT of failed calls, they profit by the TIME you keep on the line. I just know this because my sister works at a telecom company and when we were bored and saw the show we had nothing to lose by trying.
@@lordeilluminati This was very interesting to read. I thought they are profiting through number of calls, I also tried to call when I was a kid (also in Brazil) and they never picked it up lol
My wife and I stayed in Munich for our honeymoon in 2005 and a show like this was playing nearly around the clock. We thought it was hysterical because it was so obviously a scam and the acting was so overly done. We even recorded some of it with our camera, because the host was pretending to go crazy and was kicking chairs around.
Here in Germany in the 2000s every TV station had these kind of "games". We had also a TV station that showed almost 24/7 such "games" (it was called 9live) nowadays only one station shows sometimes (maybe 5 times in a month) such games. When it got widely public that these "games" are scams almost nobody called them and so these "games" vanished almost completely from the German TV...
We still have some very easy questions displayed before commercial breaks of primetime shows where you pay like 0.5€ per call for a chance to win a car or 10k€ if you get it right.
I live in Spain and I remember seeing this kind of "contests" as a kid and being interested in calling, until I saw the price of the call in the fine print.
Call-TV programs (as many Spaniards know them) were always on-air at some channels of the pre-analog shutdown Spanish digital terrestrial TV. Furthermore, those channels were considered as 'additional services' that also got some TV shopping adverts. Our current gambling laws did not forbid Call-TV programs, but instead sent them to the very late-night hours (from 1 to 5 a.m.) and rated 🔞. As they're not profitable at all when aired at such time, there's not even a trace of Call-TV programs on Spanish TV by now.
Yeah, I remember that it ran the same length, like 5 hours and in the morning, 7-12 or something. I actually called once because the question was really easy and I couldn't understand how no one was calling with the right solution to the question. But after I was told that I couldn't be connected, I figured out what was going on and stopped calling, lol
@@hubertgizinski7962 Is it still running? I do not watch much tv rn, but I do remember it from years ago. I think there was more than one programs like that:( How it even got aired!
@@benceslemmer2293 i think Budapest TV also broadcasted these kind of shows along with so many more worthless bullshit content, but I clearly remember the show on RTL Klub that was called "06-91-33-44-55" - the hosts were Miki Szakál and Gábor Beszeda. As a kid, I also "won" humongous phone bills for my parents with calling these phone lines😂😂
As a Brazilian, we have this type of thing in our open TV, I wish the people there went to jail for fooling children and elderly, damn, even when I was a kid, I almost got scammed, but my mother and father said no, thanks mom and dad, a lot
Digo o mesmo aqui, sempre tem um canal passando isso enquanto o sol esta raiando, justamente o horario que mais pega crianças e idosos Vontade de achar o estudio e descer a mão em todo mundo kkkkkkkk
@@LucarioredLR bando de vermes, essas porcarias desses canais ás vezes tem sinal melhor que a globo no meio do nada, é impressionante, tinha aquelas tvs CRT 10 anos atrás quando era criança e sei do que falo
This girl from Poland you still can find on UA-cam, her channels' name is Klaudia Klara and title is "Prowadziłam telegry. Wiem jak telewizja kłamie". She confirmed that she earned 2000 euro per mounth and also director payed for hotel in Hungary, but this was 12 years ago. So now they are probably earn much more.
The moment which appeared at 8:13 is one of the funny moments from Polish call TV shows. The task was to find two differences between the pictures. A woman claimed that one of the differences was the yellow triangle with a 12 inside. Klaudia explained that the triangle is actually a symbol meaning that the show is restricted for viewers aged 12 and above, while calls are only allowed for people aged 18 and over.
Im surprised this show hasnt been banned/cancelled here in Finland, since we have very strict laws about lottery, gambling and similar stuff. They are even considering banning online poker profits from non Finnish poker sites. But for some reason this scam show has been on tv for like 10+ years or something... The thing about this is that they make it seem like easy money, but calling the show costs a fortune and you need to answer like three questions as fast as possible before you can get through. This show is for sure a gold mine for the producers / owners.
It might be that in Finland the show is maybe working "by law". For example we have those 3 extra questions you have to answer to get in the show, where in the Czech version they just might not answer you but take your money anyways. (Just my guess.)
These used to run on Hungarian TV, but eventually the broadcasting authority killed the genre by requiring them to notify viewers that calling doesn't guarantee getting into the show. Then they switched to fortune-telling services which are harder to "disprove" and steers further away from gambling territory.
Like you rightly say these were banned in Belgium a long time ago, must be about 10 years now. I was really surprised that they are still being broadcast elsewhere.
@@harryoudemaas5169 Ik woon al 28 jaar in Nederland, en ik heb zulke show nooit op een Nederlandse televisiezender gezien. Hopelijk is zoiets illegaal hier.
I'm from Belgium and Basta was an amazing program so I'm glad you mentioned it. It was huge when it first aired and pretty much caused all those programs to stop airing within a week.
The show is running in Finland. It was mentioned in the news that a Finnish host felt the Croatian earthquake (late December 2020) in the studio in Budapest. Of course people were appalled as they thought that the show was Finnish and run in Hungary due to cheap labour costs etc.
@@TheFinSeppo Yup and not to mention, that most of the people who go there to be a host are more than likely a bit on the mentally insufficient side. They see the job application somewhere and all they can think about is ’’Wow....im gonna be rich and i’ll be on a TV show.’’, without realizing what they are getting themselves into. And by judging the male host who got upset on the phone call, it seems that they also lack the sense of morality and care about how others may see them.
The shows where filmed in Hungary, just with a host from your country. Wich is genius, the evade laws this way. Labor is cheaper and they can't be accountable for the show. Plus with luck the host get on the network working during prime time. At least in Portugal this happened with a host.
In Germany, we had an entire channel, 9Live, who aired these kinds of shows almost 24/7. It ran for a couple of years with the exact same concept you've described, except with fairly braindead puzzles like "Name an Animal that starts with the letter E". I found it quite entertaining to watch because i liked the cringe of the show hosts begging and screaming and throwing tantrums that nobody calls in, but in the end in the late 2010s the entire channel lost its licence and the show has been gone from the air since.
In Germany there was a whole station dedicated to that show. It was the same. Either no one got through or the answers where hard. There got people through that probably where paid actors. There where some proof that not a machine let the people through but a person. The regulating government body checked this and said that it got disproofen. With the answers they shoot an own goal. The question was to name an animal starting with S. Someone called in and said "Stirnlappenbasilisk" (Plumed basilisk). That is not an animal that would pop in your mind when asked such a question. The reaction of the moderator first was like someone made a joke but he freezed and probably got told that this is on the board. The moderator tried to buy that answer. When it was right, the caller would get 2500€ but the moderator offerd him 50€ when he is not taking that answer. The moderator really tried very hard that he doesn't take that answer. In the end that word was on the board.
HAHA SUPER. Hab sowas früher im Hintergrund geschaut und mich immer gewundert ob leute einfach nicht anrufen weil man eh nicht durchkommt und deswegen niemand "gewinnt"
Great you mentioned the guys from Basta in Belgium. Most of us were fed up with this scam and these guys got rid of it. They were national heroes to us.
They have the same format in Finland also. Its just that they put you to answer 3 questions, and you have to be the fastest to answer 3 questions right. You cant time it correctly and just end up calling over and over again, but you're always just too slow.
I remember seeing something similar to this “game show” in Mexico years ago. I recall the host begging people to call. Then I thought to my self “This is dumb, who the hell is going to call at 2 in the morning?”
I'm from Brazil and this show is a real treat here, everyone knows it is a scam, but the younger and older people thinks they can win, and here the economy is not that good for people expending hundreds of reais on a phone call
Yeah, in Brazil is even more disgusting, they put a lot of fake people to answer simple questions wrong to make you think OH NO, THEY ARE SO DUMB, I´M GONNA CALL NOW AND WIN THIS, THE QUESTION IS SO EASY
30+ years ago they had shows like that specially designed towards children even on air TV (TV Gazeta or TV Manchete back in the day, at least in São Paulo, I don't remember which of the two).
Same in Germany. But it still exists here old people call and people troll the hosts. But funny tbh the hosts are mostly some guys that got cut off from the big channels now they crawl like roaches to the next teleshopping or games show tv channel after the channel goes defunct
I quite liked having them on in the background in my nocturnal student days. Clearly a scam (even with the stricter UK laws) that weren't worth calling up for. Glad they've pretty much been eliminated (Some similar stuff out there but seem to be more regulated these days)
I am from Belgium. That show from Nevereffecten - Basta, caused a huge uproar here and they did what they intended to do. Which is to get it banned and canceled. They are comedians, but also amazing journalists, who go through great lenghts to uncover their stories!
I watched this video thinking to myself "this kinda scam would be annihilated so quickly in France", then was happy when you mentionned that our laws stop this
This show is not on in the US, but I wanted to compliment the host on what he is doing, I am tired of these scammers cashing in on the elderly- and anyone else and they have zero conscience about what they are doing. It’s a worldwide epidemic- and I wish it could all be stopped for good. On a different note I also wanted to tell the host that his English accent is phenomenal- I’m not sure of your background, but you have a better grasp on the English language than a lot of people who are native to the US- so wonderful job on that, my guy.. And I’m glad you got that show cancelled- that lady was very rude when she tried to insult you- you took that “insult” like a real hero, which is what you are- getting the show cancelled you hopefully saved a lot of people from throwing their money down the drain. Keep up the good work!!
Dont buy overpriced sweets, beware of pickpockets, make sure the taxi counter runs normal, choose wisely where you change your money avoid the scam ATMs, don't eat at the most crowded places, don't sign any petitions. Did I forget something?
Belgian here! Basta co-operated with a mathematician who would crack the tv program's math "puzzles" multiple times and published the solution, it was glorious. Sadly, Basta had to be cancelled after one season, because they tried to take down a whole bunch of scams that made the government money.
When i was a kid i was sick for a week i bingewatching this crap. My mother found out a month later when our phone bill came in. I don't remember the amount, but it was so much that she called up our national tv live on air about this sort of thing
Ugh, i remember those shows in Poland. I used to watch them right before school with my grandma. She knew it was a scam, so we never called and we had a good time doing those puzzles (I was 9 yo at the time xd). But I feel really sorry for the people that got scamed. Also, your channel is the reason I starter learning Czech 1.5 ago. It's hard not to confuse czech and polish words sometimes :")) but I think I'm getting better! :D
The UK had one like this, they won't let any calls go through for a couple of minutes and put on the impression that no one is calling and so you have a chance to get through. It wasn't this same show though.
I'm just glad the UK ones are now put on overnight - hopefully kids won't watch and fall for it. Plus OFCOM looks closely at these sorts of games very closely after the ITV con a few years ago.
@@AmoralTom On mainstream channels it's pretty much dead- Channel 5 replaced theirs with roulette years ago and everyone else just cuts to regular shopping channels.
Guy's from BASTA not only got a host in the show. at that time they had a math-question. The guys contacted a math and IT expert who managed to build a computerprogram that solves the answer. He managed to crack the code and published it online so they couldn't use it anymore. It was legendary TV.
@@CntFndAName Yes indeed, but the math expert also found out that the makers made mistakes themselve. 1/6 solutions was wrong. So he had the correct, but they just made their own question a bit to difficult to understand.
@@skyd4z657 I've found the 5 parts of the BASTA episode, mind these are Dutch spoken and I haven't seen any english transcriptions included. But for anyone interested, this more than 10 years old tv-show is as for now available at: Pt. 1: ua-cam.com/video/QDWu2eHn41k/v-deo.html Pt. 2: ua-cam.com/video/qsQ2vdDvIJY/v-deo.html Pt. 3: ua-cam.com/video/yJdoOuvK9fE/v-deo.html Pt. 4: ua-cam.com/video/HxJ41Wvs8cQ/v-deo.html Pt. 5: ua-cam.com/video/mBfbnSqno_8/v-deo.html
I remember watching it a while back, utter insanity.. the TV host/mole they got in literally lost most of his friends, and people saw him as scum until he could finally reveal what he helped unravel a crazy, criminal system, that honestly should not exist in any country
Reminds me of television show Quiz Call which existed on UK TV, which was questionable and operated a premium rate line. They got investigated repeatedly and eventually closed. Thus pretty much a scam.
Hello from Hungary! Yep, they r still around over here and I was always disgusted by these shows, my granny used to watch them a lot.... Feeling sad that the hub is in Budapest though, another shameful fact about my home town I am not proud of....
@@bertalanballa6832 Egy összetett, offshore cégcsoport van mögötte, akik főleg Telemedia néven futnak, de az Emporia Style is az övék. A tulajdonosi lánc végén Törőcsik Jenő milliárdos áll. 10 éve is ugyanez ment már: valasz.hu/itthon/a-hiszekenyseg-vamszedoi-40713/
In Turkey, they are doing nearly same show on radio. Lots of elderly people call them while stuck in traffic and get scammed. Also, they promise something very expensive as a reward but they just send garbage stuff.
Me, who lives in a country with fairly strict TV advertising laws and as someone who doesn't watch TV, I can confidently prove you wrong, I have never seen this show.
I’m from France and I never saw a show like this one on any tv channel ! It was happily prohibited by the french law a long time ago. That’s crazy that it was allowed in my early years and still is in some country ! Hoping that scams like this will disappear everywhere on the planet soon. Thank you very much for your job, you made me discover a new type of scam and you effectively prevent people being robbed, you make a public utility job !
Yeah, I've seen this here in Brazil, there is a UA-camr who did the same thing. I don't know if it got cancelled here as well, cuz I don't watch TV at home.
I have seen a lot of entertaining videos on this channel. This however is one level up from great. It's amazingly humorous while bringing well-deserved attention to this issue.
Here in México we have something similar; but usually not only the phone number didnt worked because the show was from another latin spanish country (so basically re-run) or in the rare cases it worked, they usually payed because they allways gave small amounts of money (like 20-500 pesos), but also allways played around 2-6 am, when most of the people are sleeping.
I'm Brazilian and after watching this TV commercial regarding the Honest Guide book I decided to buy it and loved it. I do recommend everyone to buy it. 10/10
Fun fact: A lot of similar shows existed in czech TV. They were found guilty for violating the laws, fined and in the end even cancelled. But this one survived. No one can really make it stop, because they're using more than just one loophole to operate. They were fined several times before and they just laughed at it. And yes, it still runs on that TV station.
There are a lot of comments saying it's not in Canada, but it WAS. Around 2007, there was a show called _Brain Battle_ hosted by Jason Agnew who looked a lot like JJ Abrams (and was just as obnoxious 😒 - can you believe the guy actually put this scam-show on his website like it's a CV and something to be proud of? 🙄) The scam was to show some sort of question or puzzle that seemed just hard enough that it would be conceivable to think that nobody else watching at the moment knew the answer, hence nobody calling in to get prize-money. They would occasionally let someone through to the studio to answer it, and they'd usually get it wrong. But those were fake, they were their own people intentionally giving wrong answers to encourage viewers to call by making them think it actually was a tough question and they were really smart. It was the TV-scam version of modern mobile-game ads that fail. 😒 In reality, plenty of people were calling the toll 900-number, but they'd be put on hold and then told they weren't the "lucky winner this round" to get through to the studio to answer the question. Meanwhile, the host would continue to say stuff like "come on, it's not that hard, someone should know this" and give hints and such to make it sound like nobody is calling. It's basically a lottery, but disguised as a skill-testing-question to bypass lottery laws. It was utterly disgusting and infuriating and it was so obvious what the scam was, but still, obviously a lot of people fell for it. 🤦 Later, they started having in-studio contestants as well, but those were pretty clearly fake. There was another late-night one on TBS which used attractive girls as a tool, but I don't remember the title of that one.
Here in the Netherlands these shows used to run a lot as well during daytime television. That was a long time ago though. They stopped being aired in 2007, after the fiscal investigations division of the Dutch tax agency cracked down on these practices and networks had to pay significant fines.
We get soul crushing "entertainment" tv shows aimed at scamming old people over the phone. The truth is younger and adults deserted TV and are behind other screens, and TV was left with information at prime time, and older people entertainment the rest of the day. Older people often can't go out to buy lottery, but they can use a phone. We are watching the horrid unburied corpse of what used to be TV decomposing before our eyes.
We had, or potentially still have, a similar TV-Station running in Germany too. I think it was a secondary program to one of our sports channels. I only just now realized that this was a scam after watching this video. It was always the same host, and he would always get frustrated if people didn't call in or get the answer wrong.
Omg this just gave me flashbacks to watching a Canadian version of this in the middle of the night when I was younger. There were different hosts for different games and one of them looked like it was filmed in a dingy basement with a bad greenscreen and we'd make up our own narrations over it about how he was chained up and needed people to call in or else they'd beat him lol.
@@matt_ferr This was sometime around 2006-2008, I'm sure it was probably on before and after, it was just that I didn't stay up late enough and moved after that
I was just thinking I've never seen a show like this. I've seen game shows, even some low budget ones, but nothing where you called a 1-900 number. Of course, we mostly had cake growing up, and didn't live in a bit city, so maybe missed some broadcast stations. E.g. I know Vancouver has Chinese language channels ( Fairchild, IIRC) and some other pretty specialized channels.
@@TevelDrinkwater I looked it up and found CHCH "Game Time", it's a local broadcaster in Southern Ontario which makes sense for me but all the complaints I found seem to be from 2017-2019 so I don't know if this is the exact show and it ran that long or a different one. The more recent clips are much more polished looking. But it's the exact same kind of format.
Me: "Ok, let's check out what's on the TV tonight." Guy with a punctured lung: "kRásNý dOBrý vEčeR!" Ma: "Right, I think that's enough TV for today..."
Lithuania had similar type of show like 15 years ago, thankfully haven't seen anything similar since then. The sales pitch they put up makes me despise these scammers, I can't imagine how somebody could do this for a living, ugh .
Meanwhile… Polish market praised this TV Game show scams that there even was a dedicated channel - „TVN GRA” from TVN Group (Now a part of Warner Bros Discovery), it was operating during 2005-2006
My 12 years old self can relate. It's not only bad because they are scamming people, but also the viewers who will call are mostly low class and can't afford the exorbitant bills.
We had a few of these in the UK, the most famous one was Quizmania. These were banned in 2007 after it was found that some of the questions had no correct answers and they were also picking callers who they knew didn't have the right answer to get through to the studio.
In the UK, we had maybe 5 or 6 entire channels broadcasting these types of shows 24/7. It got so big that even one of the biggest broadcasters, ITV had a channel for it. Needless to say, it was all very dodgy and when the regulators investigated them, all channels were eventually shut down. It's sad to hear that these types of shows still exist in other countries.
111/10 Ad for the Honest Guide book. It was so convincing, I phoned in and pre-ordered 18,000 of them and a lifelong subscription. Can't wait for my first twelve dozen copies.
I remember something like that from Germany, when I was a young child (like 20+ years ago). So that scam is VERY old. Back then, I didn't even know about the concept of "scams". At least they were a little bit more upfront, saying like "there are X lines and if you get the right one when I press this button, you can be on". So it was, for an attentive observer, very clear that this was "lottery" at best. The quizzes on there were very easy (which is why I called 2 or 3 times hoping to "win" back then...) and whenever someone was actually going through (which was like... once every half hour to hour or so) mostly the people gave dumb answers that were wrong, which, as a little kid, made me thing that I was very smart and that I should call to win...
I'm from Russia and I don't watch TV actually but I believe these shows were a thing in 2000s. There is even a parody of them in the 96th episode of a popular animated web series called "Masyanya"
I remember probably in 2010 my dad was watching an entertainment show (in India) in a very unpopular kind of channel. There was a game in which viewers have to guess the celebrity (80s celebrity basically) by looking at a picture of their eyes. And there was no prize or something it was just for fun. My dad liked the show he called the number on screen, nobody picked up, but all his mobile balance deducted for nothing.
Canada, specifically Toronto had these scam "contests" aired in the early early mornings with the exact same premise. Glad that the law caught up to them as well and shut them down. But it took the telephone providers to investigate the issue first after some very huge phone bills
And yes, as you said, this show existed in Belgium before being cancelled. My mother wanted to participate; but never succeeded. Each time she called, it was the same message: "all our lines are busy, please try again"; while the guy on TV was desperately waiting for a call. In total; it cost her €90 in one single day but of course, she discovered it at the end of the billing period.
There is a show that works the same as this in Greek television, especially in secondary TV channels. They charge about 2 EUR per minute to call and they do their best to delay you in order to charge you more money
I remember these, in Australia they replaced late night TV sitcom reruns with these things. On all the channels. One was called Big Brother Up Late, where they were playing these games in between livestreams of the Big Brother House, and Quizmania where they were doing little more than stretching for time in between calls. They lasted about a year before they faded out.
@@Daniel15au channel 10 and 9, started about midnight. I think 7 had them too. But I definitely remember Big Brother Up Late, which was the start of it, they broadcast the Big Brother house, and when nothing was happening in the House they had these quizzes where you called in. Then they replaced it with just the games hosted by a former contestant called "hotdogs up late".en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Up-Late_Game_Show#:~:text=The%20Up-Late%20Game%20Show%20was%20a%20late%20night,viewers%20could%20attempt%20to%20solve%20over%20the%20phone.
In Lithuania we had this stuff like 15years ago. I used to watch it with my grandma after school and I even called once. I got the same anwser as you did, figured that it was bullshit and never called again. I am proud of 12years old me kind of haha
Ooooh I remember watching this exact show late at night as a kid here in Portugal! Never thought they were a scam, but I remember thinking it was kinda weird no one was calling when the answers were very obvious. I also vividly remember someone finally calling and saying the "correct" word and then it turned out to be another very similar word that I can guarantee absolutely no one knew about, but that made it seem even more credible in my eyes. Anyway, great video, it's good to know!
A familiar show from Finnish tv, as you said. The questions are so stupid and simple, but still no one gets them right. That's because no one ever gets through from the lines.
I watched this video only for the honest guide book...
I want to buy it now.
@@bes03c out of stock
I'm interested in this book.
@@D3sForEver_Kareem geez, looks I was just in time to buy it!
You mean the book that you can buy from WWW.HONEST.BLOG/SHOP ?
I guess the other one, from the show..
Crazy. This show ran in Brazil for hours straight. What caught my attention was the amount of time the presenter teased the audience but no one called.
Acho q ainda passa na rede tv
@@MorgueVOID nunca mais vi
@@MorgueVOID I no longer watch this program on RedeTV. Perhaps it was banned by authorities.
@@MoisesCaster kkkkk duvido
That's so that you think you have a chance of getting through.
I love how the review at 4:14 calls it robbery over the phone, but still leave a 3 star review
Maybe dude just enjoys his 18 years subscription of telemagazine
When I was a kid in Brazil, we had these TV programs all day. One time I discovered the answer and asked for my parents to call the show so we could get some money. They said that we would have to pay the call and answer 5 different questions. If we get one wrong we were eliminated, so they didnt called. I've gotten so frustated because I knew the asnwer. Now I realize that show is a lie and I'm greatfull that my parents didnt call the show.
Show is not a lie. You just need to be lucky, i have won
@@sl4074 What countries does your show still air? So we can have it cancelled there too.
@@caelestigladii i came through in denmark it was about 15 years ago i won 170 euro
@@sl4074 and how much did it cost you to win €170?
@@davesy6969 one phonecall and I had to put my number in then they called back up and I guessed the right word then i had to pick a number and won 170€ if I took number next to it I would win jackpot which was like 10.000€
Czech authorities cancelled the show before you could post this episode online. Now that's efficiency!
They actually posted the Czech version of this video on their Czech UA-cam channel. That brought attention to the show and it was subsequently cancelled shortly after that :)
@@hankaviolet6689 Very nice XP
All thanks to the psychic squad!
man, i got hungry reading your name.
@@MrMajsterixx You didnt get hungary?
I remember watching a national version of this same scam as a kid, over 20 years ago, in Argentina.
Though there weren’t small prizes given in the beginning, there was only a huge pool prize. And I’m almost certain that the people they let through the phone were members of the staff, cause the games had the stupidest questions you can imagine and everyone just had to get the answer wrong!
As a kid I remember spending all of my old cells credit trying to get through once 😓
yo tambien me acuerdo que existia eso aca jajaja, ya no esta mas??
@@VOGS597 ni idea xD ya no veo TV. Seguramente siga estando!
There is a version on Brazil
Hace mucho no veo algo así en Argentina, estoy buscando información para ver si fue prohibido o qué
En Colombia también, me acuerdo ver algo así, especialmente en las noches.
We had similar "games" in Greece a few years back. Our twist was that the questions and the quizzes were stupid easy but even so there were some people connecting, saying the wrong answer, and that failure increased the prize. It was so frustrating to many people that made them wanna call and give the right answer. We weren't even getting a magazine.
Good times
same thing in argentina
the same here in Brazil, but how it works is slightly different. The show makes you think that no one is calling and the line is empty and you just need to call to enter the show to have a chance to win the prize but it doesnt work that way. When you call the number, they ask A LOT of stupid questions and they say that you need to win a certain amount of points through the day to have a chance to be called on the show. I have to be very clear that this information is NOT said on the show itself, only on the phone. The scammers dont gain money by the AMOUNT of failed calls, they profit by the TIME you keep on the line.
I just know this because my sister works at a telecom company and when we were bored and saw the show we had nothing to lose by trying.
@@lordeilluminati This was very interesting to read. I thought they are profiting through number of calls, I also tried to call when I was a kid (also in Brazil) and they never picked it up lol
Same as the uk games
My wife and I stayed in Munich for our honeymoon in 2005 and a show like this was playing nearly around the clock. We thought it was hysterical because it was so obviously a scam and the acting was so overly done. We even recorded some of it with our camera, because the host was pretending to go crazy and was kicking chairs around.
If you search "9live" you will find many archived clips from the show. Luckily it isn't around anymore.
@@emil.steiner Ich mag 9Live. Viele verstehen das Konzept nicht!
haha you watched "Max Schradin" he was not acting . He is quite the meme in germany because of his rages.
@@thookie118 All Germans act like that
@@spaniardsrmoors6817 and here we have the assh... of the month again ;-)
Here in Germany in the 2000s every TV station had these kind of "games". We had also a TV station that showed almost 24/7 such "games" (it was called 9live) nowadays only one station shows sometimes (maybe 5 times in a month) such games. When it got widely public that these "games" are scams almost nobody called them and so these "games" vanished almost completely from the German TV...
We still have some very easy questions displayed before commercial breaks of primetime shows where you pay like 0.5€ per call for a chance to win a car or 10k€ if you get it right.
@@Salzui yeah but you actually have a chance at the 10K if you take part in that xD
Max Schradin ❤😂
In Romania they got banned about 6-7 years ago.
They did? I was about to ask around if we have some of this shit.
Serios? Super tare! N-am mai stat de ani buni la tv..chiar credeam ca mai exista
Da era pe antena 1 daca nu ma insel. Sora mea a pierdut ceva lei atunci :D.
Fortunately they got banned but we miss doamna Mihaita Boss :)))
@@SPRLOLL daaaaaa corect
You made me visit Prague ;). (no i did not get scammed, cuz ive seen ur vids)
Nice
did someone try tho?
I hope u liked our country :D
too bad they deleted all their old videos for no reason so no one can see the useful advice
ua-cam.com/video/wlLlVjlo8QU/v-deo.html
I live in Spain and I remember seeing this kind of "contests" as a kid and being interested in calling, until I saw the price of the call in the fine print.
Call-TV programs (as many Spaniards know them) were always on-air at some channels of the pre-analog shutdown Spanish digital terrestrial TV. Furthermore, those channels were considered as 'additional services' that also got some TV shopping adverts.
Our current gambling laws did not forbid Call-TV programs, but instead sent them to the very late-night hours (from 1 to 5 a.m.) and rated 🔞. As they're not profitable at all when aired at such time, there's not even a trace of Call-TV programs on Spanish TV by now.
Pues yo nunca los he visto en la tele 🤷♀️
we had this in Romania years ago. but somehow it stopped. what i remember is tone of people getting through and yelling obscene stuff at the hosts
Sounds Great 😂
@@achimarmbruster8806 its true tho
Yeah, I remember that it ran the same length, like 5 hours and in the morning, 7-12 or something. I actually called once because the question was really easy and I couldn't understand how no one was calling with the right solution to the question. But after I was told that I couldn't be connected, I figured out what was going on and stopped calling, lol
@@hoptiomping oh
we had such TV scam shows in Poland too
this shit should be illegal
@@hubertgizinski7962 Is it still running? I do not watch much tv rn, but I do remember it from years ago. I think there was more than one programs like that:( How it even got aired!
I'm 22 years old and I do remember these shows were running on TV, since I was 6-7 Years old.
-Hungary
I'm 29 but I am not sure, was it the one on Budapest TV? :D
@@benceslemmer2293 i think Budapest TV also broadcasted these kind of shows along with so many more worthless bullshit content, but I clearly remember the show on RTL Klub that was called "06-91-33-44-55" - the hosts were Miki Szakál and Gábor Beszeda. As a kid, I also "won" humongous phone bills for my parents with calling these phone lines😂😂
@@gaborhamori4246 That why i thought of them i knew by then it was a scam but at least it was funny to watch i watched soo many episode.
I’m 39 and it was running in Hungary already when I was a kid.
Oh yeah, same here in Belgium. Around the same time aswell
As a Brazilian, we have this type of thing in our open TV, I wish the people there went to jail for fooling children and elderly, damn, even when I was a kid, I almost got scammed, but my mother and father said no, thanks mom and dad, a lot
Digo o mesmo aqui, sempre tem um canal passando isso enquanto o sol esta raiando, justamente o horario que mais pega crianças e idosos
Vontade de achar o estudio e descer a mão em todo mundo kkkkkkkk
@@LucarioredLR bando de vermes, essas porcarias desses canais ás vezes tem sinal melhor que a globo no meio do nada, é impressionante, tinha aquelas tvs CRT 10 anos atrás quando era criança e sei do que falo
Nunca mais vi passar. Sabem em que canal e horário?
@@MrLuizsaluti Geralmente Rede TV.
I freaking hate those shows
This girl from Poland you still can find on UA-cam, her channels' name is Klaudia Klara and title is "Prowadziłam telegry. Wiem jak telewizja kłamie". She confirmed that she earned 2000 euro per mounth and also director payed for hotel in Hungary, but this was 12 years ago. So now they are probably earn much more.
The moment which appeared at 8:13 is one of the funny moments from Polish call TV shows. The task was to find two differences between the pictures. A woman claimed that one of the differences was the yellow triangle with a 12 inside. Klaudia explained that the triangle is actually a symbol meaning that the show is restricted for viewers aged 12 and above, while calls are only allowed for people aged 18 and over.
Thanks. I wanted to watch that, 'cuz I used to watch the Polish version at my grandma's house and even called in once😂
Im surprised this show hasnt been banned/cancelled here in Finland, since we have very strict laws about lottery, gambling and similar stuff. They are even considering banning online poker profits from non Finnish poker sites. But for some reason this scam show has been on tv for like 10+ years or something... The thing about this is that they make it seem like easy money, but calling the show costs a fortune and you need to answer like three questions as fast as possible before you can get through. This show is for sure a gold mine for the producers / owners.
Ei ole puuhöylä
Semmoset punaiset nahkaiset
@@Metalmara eikö mustat?
It might be that in Finland the show is maybe working "by law". For example we have those 3 extra questions you have to answer to get in the show, where in the Czech version they just might not answer you but take your money anyways. (Just my guess.)
No one is brave enough to report them.
These used to run on Hungarian TV, but eventually the broadcasting authority killed the genre by requiring them to notify viewers that calling doesn't guarantee getting into the show. Then they switched to fortune-telling services which are harder to "disprove" and steers further away from gambling territory.
Like you rightly say these were banned in Belgium a long time ago, must be about 10 years now. I was really surprised that they are still being broadcast elsewhere.
in Serbia there Is still lot of these "Money Big prizes" TV shows
They broadcast in 40 countries right now I believe.
Here in the Netherlands to, damn it was such a cringe scam
@@harryoudemaas5169 Ik woon al 28 jaar in Nederland, en ik heb zulke show nooit op een Nederlandse televisiezender gezien. Hopelijk is zoiets illegaal hier.
@@10jpmorgan ik denk zon 10 jaar geleden is het hier verboden geworden
I'm from Belgium and Basta was an amazing program so I'm glad you mentioned it. It was huge when it first aired and pretty much caused all those programs to stop airing within a week.
it is on youtuve if you want to rewatch. Basta Belspelletjes
I don't get it why it's still aired in Wallonia
@@Mojit0o0 It's still aired there? That sucks. 🤬
When he comes home after his first day and they threw a party with a banner that said "good job scamming people! 🥳", I loooooved that. Amazing show.
I remember seeing a show exactly like this a few years back on Polish tv. The way they beg for you to call was so over the top it made me laugh.
Basically all astro/tarot late night shows in a nutshell:
MAde by the same company btw ;D
They are next? Or are they being marketed under different kinds of laws?
@@StormCrusher94 Well thye just grab your money with ridicolous rates on calls. But that\s not really illegal.
Well, it might still be cheaper than to see a "medium" in real life.
@@MyRegardsToTheDodo 5euro per min....
The show is running in Finland. It was mentioned in the news that a Finnish host felt the Croatian earthquake (late December 2020) in the studio in Budapest. Of course people were appalled as they thought that the show was Finnish and run in Hungary due to cheap labour costs etc.
Not exactly cheap though i think. The employer provides flights accomidation and apparently the pay is quite good even by Finnish standards.
@@TheFinSeppo Yup and not to mention, that most of the people who go there to be a host are more than likely a bit on the mentally insufficient side.
They see the job application somewhere and all they can think about is ’’Wow....im gonna be rich and i’ll be on a TV show.’’, without realizing what they are getting themselves into.
And by judging the male host who got upset on the phone call, it seems that they also lack the sense of morality and care about how others may see them.
The shows where filmed in Hungary, just with a host from your country. Wich is genius, the evade laws this way. Labor is cheaper and they can't be accountable for the show. Plus with luck the host get on the network working during prime time. At least in Portugal this happened with a host.
@@TheFinSeppo Ten years ago they pay 2kEur
@@ricardolopes8945 going to a worse country to work should mean they pay you more. But maybe the low production cost covers that
In Germany, we had an entire channel, 9Live, who aired these kinds of shows almost 24/7. It ran for a couple of years with the exact same concept you've described, except with fairly braindead puzzles like "Name an Animal that starts with the letter E". I found it quite entertaining to watch because i liked the cringe of the show hosts begging and screaming and throwing tantrums that nobody calls in, but in the end in the late 2010s the entire channel lost its licence and the show has been gone from the air since.
Yes, but there is still the "Sportquiz" in Sport1 occasionally with the same concept, but in boring and legal
In Brazil, this show was called "Top Game". After a lot of complaints, they were prosecuted and it ended in 2019.
legal :D
Eu n sabia que tinha acabado
@@boristruth7912 Are you Czech? Do you speak portuguese?
@@DaniSI-x8s Pelo que sei, acabou.
@@mauriciofernandes7698 entendi, vlw
You guys are legends, idk if people appreciate what you did as much as I do but you're actually making the world a better place
Hosts: You have nothing to lose, we beg you to make the call!
Caller: doesn't come through
Also Hosts: *Why isn't anyone calling?*
In Germany there was a whole station dedicated to that show. It was the same. Either no one got through or the answers where hard. There got people through that probably where paid actors. There where some proof that not a machine let the people through but a person. The regulating government body checked this and said that it got disproofen.
With the answers they shoot an own goal. The question was to name an animal starting with S. Someone called in and said "Stirnlappenbasilisk" (Plumed basilisk). That is not an animal that would pop in your mind when asked such a question. The reaction of the moderator first was like someone made a joke but he freezed and probably got told that this is on the board. The moderator tried to buy that answer. When it was right, the caller would get 2500€ but the moderator offerd him 50€ when he is not taking that answer. The moderator really tried very hard that he doesn't take that answer. In the end that word was on the board.
HAHA SUPER. Hab sowas früher im Hintergrund geschaut und mich immer gewundert ob leute einfach nicht anrufen weil man eh nicht durchkommt und deswegen niemand "gewinnt"
The clip with Stirnlappenbasilisk is probably German history by now: ua-cam.com/video/jw65ynw2jDE/v-deo.html
@@olo1207 Don't forget the classic "Habicht"ua-cam.com/video/Br_gIk3DNBo/v-deo.html
skip to 9:52
@@olo1207 omg sehr komisch! wie sagt man "awkward" auf Deutsch?
Weren't they caught changing the quiz during a call that had gotten it right so they wouldn't have to pay?
Great you mentioned the guys from Basta in Belgium. Most of us were fed up with this scam and these guys got rid of it. They were national heroes to us.
They have the same format in Finland also. Its just that they put you to answer 3 questions, and you have to be the fastest to answer 3 questions right. You cant time it correctly and just end up calling over and over again, but you're always just too slow.
I remember seeing something similar to this “game show” in Mexico years ago. I recall the host begging people to call. Then I thought to my self “This is dumb, who the hell is going to call at 2 in the morning?”
Cartel members
Desperate people.
"Oh boy, 2 AM!"
I remember them too, super late in the morning and I also remember they charged for a SMS message, and ALL the contestants were set up, total scam.
I'd never participate in this kind of trash, but there are way more people than you might think that work non classic hours.
I'm from Brazil and this show is a real treat here, everyone knows it is a scam, but the younger and older people thinks they can win, and here the economy is not that good for people expending hundreds of reais on a phone call
Yeah, in Brazil is even more disgusting, they put a lot of fake people to answer simple questions wrong to make you think OH NO, THEY ARE SO DUMB, I´M GONNA CALL NOW AND WIN THIS, THE QUESTION IS SO EASY
30+ years ago they had shows like that specially designed towards children even on air TV (TV Gazeta or TV Manchete back in the day, at least in São Paulo, I don't remember which of the two).
Eu gastei TD meus créditos ligando pra essas desgraças quando era pequeno kkkkkkj
@@TheSimArchitect Wasn't it the little elf named Hugo?
@@Rafattak Yes! OMG! You have much better memory than I do! There was a train game, right?
There used to be a whole TV Channel like this about 20 years ago in the UK. It was on pretty much 24 hours a day.
Same in Germany. But it still exists here old people call and people troll the hosts. But funny tbh the hosts are mostly some guys that got cut off from the big channels now they crawl like roaches to the next teleshopping or games show tv channel after the channel goes defunct
I quite liked having them on in the background in my nocturnal student days. Clearly a scam (even with the stricter UK laws) that weren't worth calling up for. Glad they've pretty much been eliminated (Some similar stuff out there but seem to be more regulated these days)
Wasn't that the ITVPLAY scandal? I used to be able to watch online, and it was pretty obvious how bad the scam was.
I am from Belgium. That show from Nevereffecten - Basta, caused a huge uproar here and they did what they intended to do. Which is to get it banned and canceled. They are comedians, but also amazing journalists, who go through great lenghts to uncover their stories!
Clever Belgians 😊
I watched this video thinking to myself "this kinda scam would be annihilated so quickly in France", then was happy when you mentionned that our laws stop this
nice try, Frenchie!
God bless the French! French authorities aren't very competent, but they occasionally get some things right.
This show is not on in the US, but I wanted to compliment the host on what he is doing, I am tired of these scammers cashing in on the elderly- and anyone else and they have zero conscience about what they are doing. It’s a worldwide epidemic- and I wish it could all be stopped for good.
On a different note I also wanted to tell the host that his English accent is phenomenal- I’m not sure of your background, but you have a better grasp on the English language than a lot of people who are native to the US- so wonderful job on that, my guy.. And I’m glad you got that show cancelled- that lady was very rude when she tried to insult you- you took that “insult” like a real hero, which is what you are- getting the show cancelled you hopefully saved a lot of people from throwing their money down the drain.
Keep up the good work!!
I will be visiting Prague this summer because of this channel.
Nice!
I hope I can visit it as soon as possible also. Damn COVID.....
Not with covid poo bum
Dont buy overpriced sweets, beware of pickpockets, make sure the taxi counter runs normal, choose wisely where you change your money avoid the scam ATMs, don't eat at the most crowded places, don't sign any petitions. Did I forget something?
@@Schmaahn meet honest guide u forgot the most imp part 😆
Belgian here! Basta co-operated with a mathematician who would crack the tv program's math "puzzles" multiple times and published the solution, it was glorious.
Sadly, Basta had to be cancelled after one season, because they tried to take down a whole bunch of scams that made the government money.
I can’t believe the change and societal impact this one UA-cam channel is making, it’s crazy. Keep up the great work.
When i was a kid i was sick for a week i bingewatching this crap. My mother found out a month later when our phone bill came in. I don't remember the amount, but it was so much that she called up our national tv live on air about this sort of thing
Ugh, i remember those shows in Poland. I used to watch them right before school with my grandma. She knew it was a scam, so we never called and we had a good time doing those puzzles (I was 9 yo at the time xd). But I feel really sorry for the people that got scamed.
Also, your channel is the reason I starter learning Czech 1.5 ago. It's hard not to confuse czech and polish words sometimes :")) but I think I'm getting better! :D
I wonder if TV horoscopes are operated by the same people.
Yep, the Honest Guide book, LOVE it! I absolutely LOVE what you are doing! You are fantastic! Uncover all the evil scams in this world!
The UK had one like this, they won't let any calls go through for a couple of minutes and put on the impression that no one is calling and so you have a chance to get through. It wasn't this same show though.
It doesn't take a genius to tailor a show to a target audience.
Probs the same company running the show.
I'm just glad the UK ones are now put on overnight - hopefully kids won't watch and fall for it. Plus OFCOM looks closely at these sorts of games very closely after the ITV con a few years ago.
@@DigitalDiabloUK i have not seen it on UK channels in a very long time.
@@AmoralTom On mainstream channels it's pretty much dead- Channel 5 replaced theirs with roulette years ago and everyone else just cuts to regular shopping channels.
Guy's from BASTA not only got a host in the show. at that time they had a math-question. The guys contacted a math and IT expert who managed to build a computerprogram that solves the answer. He managed to crack the code and published it online so they couldn't use it anymore. It was legendary TV.
Even though the math expert cracked the code and phoned in they still said it was wrong
@@CntFndAName Yes indeed, but the math expert also found out that the makers made mistakes themselve. 1/6 solutions was wrong. So he had the correct, but they just made their own question a bit to difficult to understand.
Hey Thomas, any chance you could link the video from BASTA? It sounds funny but I can’t find it anywhere
@@skyd4z657 I've found the 5 parts of the BASTA episode, mind these are Dutch spoken and I haven't seen any english transcriptions included.
But for anyone interested, this more than 10 years old tv-show is as for now available at:
Pt. 1: ua-cam.com/video/QDWu2eHn41k/v-deo.html
Pt. 2: ua-cam.com/video/qsQ2vdDvIJY/v-deo.html
Pt. 3: ua-cam.com/video/yJdoOuvK9fE/v-deo.html
Pt. 4: ua-cam.com/video/HxJ41Wvs8cQ/v-deo.html
Pt. 5: ua-cam.com/video/mBfbnSqno_8/v-deo.html
I remember watching it a while back, utter insanity.. the TV host/mole they got in literally lost most of his friends, and people saw him as scum until he could finally reveal what he helped unravel
a crazy, criminal system, that honestly should not exist in any country
Reminds me of television show Quiz Call which existed on UK TV, which was questionable and operated a premium rate line. They got investigated repeatedly and eventually closed. Thus pretty much a scam.
I love your videos man like you seem such a nice dude I'd be happy to have a friend like you
Doufám, že nejsem jediný člověk, který se na vaše videa podívá vždy minimálně dvakrát v obou jazycích. :D
Doufáme, že ne, ale zatím jste :D.
Nejsi xD
Nejsi :D
ua-cam.com/video/wlLlVjlo8QU/v-deo.html
Nejsi
It sucks that you could even get sued for uncovering scam.
Sending thoughts and cares!
Hello from Hungary! Yep, they r still around over here and I was always disgusted by these shows, my granny used to watch them a lot.... Feeling sad that the hub is in Budapest though, another shameful fact about my home town I am not proud of....
Hello! Nem tudod esetleg mi a cég neve? Ez az Ékszert TV mögött álló Emporia Style kft lehet?
@@bertalanballa6832 Egy összetett, offshore cégcsoport van mögötte, akik főleg Telemedia néven futnak, de az Emporia Style is az övék. A tulajdonosi lánc végén Törőcsik Jenő milliárdos áll.
10 éve is ugyanez ment már: valasz.hu/itthon/a-hiszekenyseg-vamszedoi-40713/
@@bertalanballa6832 Telemedia InteracTV
In Turkey, they are doing nearly same show on radio. Lots of elderly people call them while stuck in traffic and get scammed. Also, they promise something very expensive as a reward but they just send garbage stuff.
Umm, but theres also another scam on tv, which is send WIN to 1234 and like that
Me, who lives in a country with fairly strict TV advertising laws and as someone who doesn't watch TV, I can confidently prove you wrong, I have never seen this show.
I’m from France and I never saw a show like this one on any tv channel ! It was happily prohibited by the french law a long time ago. That’s crazy that it was allowed in my early years and still is in some country ! Hoping that scams like this will disappear everywhere on the planet soon. Thank you very much for your job, you made me discover a new type of scam and you effectively prevent people being robbed, you make a public utility job !
Yeah, I've seen this here in Brazil, there is a UA-camr who did the same thing. I don't know if it got cancelled here as well, cuz I don't watch TV at home.
Does one of the shows videos include this one woman host that threw up in the middle of talking and kept going?
I'm watching this and realizing a show I liked to watch as a kid may have been one of these scams y'all just unlocked some sort of memory in my mind.
I have seen a lot of entertaining videos on this channel.
This however is one level up from great. It's amazingly humorous while bringing well-deserved attention to this issue.
I knew it was an ad for your book the whole time. I'd testify in court, it was so obvious.
Yep......same thing has been on air over here in Australia
We used to have a similar gameshow here in Sweden too. But it was canceled a few years back. 👍
Famously with the puking girl
@@zwete exactly 🤮😁
We still have these shows in finland
@@LR2k8kan du säga vad den hette?
@@nikanora97 TV4 hade ett program som kallades Nattliv och det som gick på TV6/TV3, tror jag var Lyckochansen.
Here in México we have something similar; but usually not only the phone number didnt worked because the show was from another latin spanish country (so basically re-run) or in the rare cases it worked, they usually payed because they allways gave small amounts of money (like 20-500 pesos), but also allways played around 2-6 am, when most of the people are sleeping.
I'm Brazilian and after watching this TV commercial regarding the Honest Guide book I decided to buy it and loved it. I do recommend everyone to buy it. 10/10
The world certainly needs people like you to become a better place! Thumbs up!
Fun fact: A lot of similar shows existed in czech TV. They were found guilty for violating the laws, fined and in the end even cancelled. But this one survived. No one can really make it stop, because they're using more than just one loophole to operate. They were fined several times before and they just laughed at it. And yes, it still runs on that TV station.
There are a lot of comments saying it's not in Canada, but it WAS. Around 2007, there was a show called _Brain Battle_ hosted by Jason Agnew who looked a lot like JJ Abrams (and was just as obnoxious 😒 - can you believe the guy actually put this scam-show on his website like it's a CV and something to be proud of? 🙄)
The scam was to show some sort of question or puzzle that seemed just hard enough that it would be conceivable to think that nobody else watching at the moment knew the answer, hence nobody calling in to get prize-money.
They would occasionally let someone through to the studio to answer it, and they'd usually get it wrong. But those were fake, they were their own people intentionally giving wrong answers to encourage viewers to call by making them think it actually was a tough question and they were really smart. It was the TV-scam version of modern mobile-game ads that fail. 😒
In reality, plenty of people were calling the toll 900-number, but they'd be put on hold and then told they weren't the "lucky winner this round" to get through to the studio to answer the question.
Meanwhile, the host would continue to say stuff like "come on, it's not that hard, someone should know this" and give hints and such to make it sound like nobody is calling. It's basically a lottery, but disguised as a skill-testing-question to bypass lottery laws. It was utterly disgusting and infuriating and it was so obvious what the scam was, but still, obviously a lot of people fell for it. 🤦
Later, they started having in-studio contestants as well, but those were pretty clearly fake.
There was another late-night one on TBS which used attractive girls as a tool, but I don't remember the title of that one.
Can't wait to buy the book, usually I don't like watching adverts but this one was amazing!
Here in the Netherlands these shows used to run a lot as well during daytime television. That was a long time ago though. They stopped being aired in 2007, after the fiscal investigations division of the Dutch tax agency cracked down on these practices and networks had to pay significant fines.
We had the same type off tv scams in Sweden but that is now banned by law
We had that in Brazil too. After a few to many years on the air, authorities eventually caught up with them and it got pulled.
We get soul crushing "entertainment" tv shows aimed at scamming old people over the phone.
The truth is younger and adults deserted TV and are behind other screens, and TV was left with information at prime time, and older people entertainment the rest of the day. Older people often can't go out to buy lottery, but they can use a phone.
We are watching the horrid unburied corpse of what used to be TV decomposing before our eyes.
We had, or potentially still have, a similar TV-Station running in Germany too. I think it was a secondary program to one of our sports channels. I only just now realized that this was a scam after watching this video. It was always the same host, and he would always get frustrated if people didn't call in or get the answer wrong.
Omg this just gave me flashbacks to watching a Canadian version of this in the middle of the night when I was younger. There were different hosts for different games and one of them looked like it was filmed in a dingy basement with a bad greenscreen and we'd make up our own narrations over it about how he was chained up and needed people to call in or else they'd beat him lol.
when was it?
@@matt_ferr This was sometime around 2006-2008, I'm sure it was probably on before and after, it was just that I didn't stay up late enough and moved after that
I was just thinking I've never seen a show like this. I've seen game shows, even some low budget ones, but nothing where you called a 1-900 number. Of course, we mostly had cake growing up, and didn't live in a bit city, so maybe missed some broadcast stations. E.g. I know Vancouver has Chinese language channels ( Fairchild, IIRC) and some other pretty specialized channels.
@@TevelDrinkwater I looked it up and found CHCH "Game Time", it's a local broadcaster in Southern Ontario which makes sense for me but all the complaints I found seem to be from 2017-2019 so I don't know if this is the exact show and it ran that long or a different one. The more recent clips are much more polished looking. But it's the exact same kind of format.
@@stephhhie17 Thanks for the info! I'm kind of curious to look it up now.
Me: "Ok, let's check out what's on the TV tonight."
Guy with a punctured lung: "kRásNý dOBrý vEčeR!"
Ma: "Right, I think that's enough TV for today..."
the fact authorities now stay tuned to your videos is basically the insider or destroying scams. lovely
You guys are amazing! Thank you for uncovering these scams and informing people ❤️
Lithuania had similar type of show like 15 years ago, thankfully haven't seen anything similar since then. The sales pitch they put up makes me despise these scammers, I can't imagine how somebody could do this for a living, ugh .
Meanwhile… Polish market praised this TV Game show scams that there even was a dedicated channel - „TVN GRA” from TVN Group (Now a part of Warner Bros Discovery), it was operating during 2005-2006
Belgian here, that Basta documentary was legendary and broke all the news when it aired. The guy who they hired is actually an actor now!
My 12 years old self can relate. It's not only bad because they are scamming people, but also the viewers who will call are mostly low class and can't afford the exorbitant bills.
In Quebec (French Canada), it used to be called Call-TV, and it played only after 11pm, for a couple years before they cancelled it altogether.
ya Canada would not let that fly 👍🏽
We had the same TV scam here in Canada and it was called Call TV.
It created so much outrage that they removed it from the air!
When did it happen?
@@matt_ferr 2009 to 2011
I don’t remember that
I don't remember that
Glad I dodged that bullet! I was wondering if someone in the comments would mention 🇨🇦
This was also common in Belgium, but 10 years ago these tv-scams were prohibited by law and now you don't see this anymore.
Ik herinner mij deze zever ook.
Als je 't filmpje effectief zou bekeken hebben, zou je weten dat hij België en Basta specifiek vermeld heeft.
I started by watching a video about people getting ripped off by highway decals, now I'm here. Your channel is rad.
We had a few of these in the UK, the most famous one was Quizmania. These were banned in 2007 after it was found that some of the questions had no correct answers and they were also picking callers who they knew didn't have the right answer to get through to the studio.
In the UK, we had maybe 5 or 6 entire channels broadcasting these types of shows 24/7. It got so big that even one of the biggest broadcasters, ITV had a channel for it. Needless to say, it was all very dodgy and when the regulators investigated them, all channels were eventually shut down. It's sad to hear that these types of shows still exist in other countries.
Yep Quiz Call was a big one.
111/10 Ad for the Honest Guide book. It was so convincing, I phoned in and pre-ordered 18,000 of them and a lifelong subscription. Can't wait for my first twelve dozen copies.
I remember something like that from Germany, when I was a young child (like 20+ years ago).
So that scam is VERY old. Back then, I didn't even know about the concept of "scams". At least they were a little bit more upfront, saying like "there are X lines and if you get the right one when I press this button, you can be on". So it was, for an attentive observer, very clear that this was "lottery" at best.
The quizzes on there were very easy (which is why I called 2 or 3 times hoping to "win" back then...) and whenever someone was actually going through (which was like... once every half hour to hour or so) mostly the people gave dumb answers that were wrong, which, as a little kid, made me thing that I was very smart and that I should call to win...
Sounds like they were just having their own employees pose as winners, answering with dumb replies to drive actual viewers to call in.
I'm from Russia and I don't watch TV actually but I believe these shows were a thing in 2000s.
There is even a parody of them in the 96th episode of a popular animated web series called "Masyanya"
I remember probably in 2010 my dad was watching an entertainment show (in India) in a very unpopular kind of channel. There was a game in which viewers have to guess the celebrity (80s celebrity basically) by looking at a picture of their eyes. And there was no prize or something it was just for fun. My dad liked the show he called the number on screen, nobody picked up, but all his mobile balance deducted for nothing.
Canada, specifically Toronto had these scam "contests" aired in the early early mornings with the exact same premise. Glad that the law caught up to them as well and shut them down. But it took the telephone providers to investigate the issue first after some very huge phone bills
Yeah, and I've seen them on the French-language channels too. I loved watching them Lmao
We have a lot of that in Brazil, almost called when I was a kid, thank God I have terrible anxiety :)
And yes, as you said, this show existed in Belgium before being cancelled.
My mother wanted to participate; but never succeeded. Each time she called, it was the same message: "all our lines are busy, please try again"; while the guy on TV was desperately waiting for a call.
In total; it cost her €90 in one single day but of course, she discovered it at the end of the billing period.
As I live in Finland those show still airs... And when you said Finland and showed the picture it looks the exactly like the tv show.
All Honest Guide fans on a jury:
"All we saw was an ad for the Honest Guide book" 🤷♂️🤷♀️
There is a show that works the same as this in Greek television, especially in secondary TV channels. They charge about 2 EUR per minute to call and they do their best to delay you in order to charge you more money
I remember these, in Australia they replaced late night TV sitcom reruns with these things. On all the channels. One was called Big Brother Up Late, where they were playing these games in between livestreams of the Big Brother House, and Quizmania where they were doing little more than stretching for time in between calls. They lasted about a year before they faded out.
I actually think they resurrected them a few times whenever BB resurfaced. I hope both are buried.
In Argentina It’s the same. They run it at late nights. Awful scam
Yes I remember... Falling asleep to it. The first games were simple and then no one ever won the grand prize
Which channels? I'm 31, lived in Australia until I was 23, and I've never seen anything like this.
@@Daniel15au channel 10 and 9, started about midnight. I think 7 had them too. But I definitely remember Big Brother Up Late, which was the start of it, they broadcast the Big Brother house, and when nothing was happening in the House they had these quizzes where you called in. Then they replaced it with just the games hosted by a former contestant called "hotdogs up late".en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Up-Late_Game_Show#:~:text=The%20Up-Late%20Game%20Show%20was%20a%20late%20night,viewers%20could%20attempt%20to%20solve%20over%20the%20phone.
I'm French, and this kind of show never takes off, or get cancelled in a blink lol
bro, you are HERO. we need lot of people like you.
I've seen this show here in canada!!! It plays at like 2 in the morning!
In Lithuania we had this stuff like 15years ago. I used to watch it with my grandma after school and I even called once. I got the same anwser as you did, figured that it was bullshit and never called again. I am proud of 12years old me kind of haha
Ooooh I remember watching this exact show late at night as a kid here in Portugal! Never thought they were a scam, but I remember thinking it was kinda weird no one was calling when the answers were very obvious. I also vividly remember someone finally calling and saying the "correct" word and then it turned out to be another very similar word that I can guarantee absolutely no one knew about, but that made it seem even more credible in my eyes. Anyway, great video, it's good to know!
A familiar show from Finnish tv, as you said.
The questions are so stupid and simple, but still no one gets them right. That's because no one ever gets through from the lines.