This week on Scam School, it's mind reading
and girls' phone numbers!
[VROOM]
[THEME MUSIC]
Remember when there was only one set of footprints?
That's when this episode was brought to you by GameFly.
Welcome to the show that cloned the Loch Monster,
and got her drunk.
Scam School, the only show dedicated
to social engineering at the bar and on the streets.
I'm your host, Brian Brushwood.
And this week we are back with Diamond Jim Tyler,
who has a killer mind reading miracle.
Not only do you divine an amazing, incredible number,
you also figure out a sneaky way to get the girl's digits!
Check it out!
Whoo!
All right!
Cheers!
All right, Christina and Lauren and Noah,
I gotta introduce you guys to one
of my all time favorite magicians.
He's a lecturer, an author, an inventor.
He's the who created my favorite all time Scam School trick--
the one with the five and a half pennies.
This is Diamond Jim Tyler.
Everyone applaud for the man, 'cause he's just that awesome.
[APPLAUSE]
All right, he volunteered to give us
some of the best stuff from his book Bamboozlers.
And what do you want to start off with?
I've got a pretty neat little trick
that uses the calculator in their phones.
OK.
So I'm gonna have you use your phone.
You're gonna enter some numbers.
You're gonna add, subtract.
You're gonna have a big number at the end,
and I'm gonna make a prediction now as
to what that number is gonna be.
And so I'll hide this just so it's a mystery for the moment.
Hold on to this.
Yes!
Put it under the beer!
Put it under your phone!
Put your phone on it and then put the beer on it!
Balance it all.
Now since we've never met-- is that correct, we've never met?
That's correct.
We've never met.
You don't have to sound happy about it.
[LAUGHS]
What I'd like you to do is you're
gonna enter parts of your phone number,
'cause there's no way that I could know that.
Right.
Right?
Like for instance, I don't want you
to enter the area-- what's the area code of your cell phone
number?
[INAUDIBLE]
Don't put [INAUDIBLE] in the calculator, OK?
OK.
So now what I want you to do is enter the first three numbers
in your cell phone number.
OK.
OK?
Now what I'd like you to do is multiply that number by 80,
eight-zero.
And every time you do a calculation, when I add,
subtract whatever, always hit equals after, just in case.
OK.
All right?
It's good.
Now what I'd like you to do is add one to that,
just to make it more random.
OK?
OK.
And now, let's see, I'd like you to multiply by 250.
All right?
All right.
This is a random ass number.
Yeah.
Very big number.
Now whatever the last four numbers are in your cell phone
number, put those into the calculator.
So wait, add them in?
Add them in.
Add them.
OK.
Even bigger.
Put the last four of your phone number in again.
OK.
This is crazy big!
OK.
And so now I want you to subtract 250.
Last time we multiplied by 250.
We're gonna have you subtract 250.
OK.
And when you hit equals, there should
be a big number on your screen.
A big ass number.
That's the clinical definition.
It's a pretty big number.
All right.
And I'm just curious.
I've made the prediction already.
I just want to see what that number is.
That's a huge number.
All right.
And for the first time, if you would,
take a look at the prediction.
Open it up!
And what was the prediction?
11 million.
11,541,701.
OK, so I was way, way off, right?
[LAUGHTER]
Or I did the math wrong.
See, you're so sweet.
You're pretending like maybe I don't
know how to handle a calculator.
You know what's funny?
Oh my god!
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But it's even better 'cause--
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
[LAUGHTER]
Oh, it's ringing!
Is your phone ringing?
Oh look, I'm getting a phone call!
Answer it, answer it, answer it.
Hello?
Hey, Christina.
[LAUGHTER]
This trick works so much better in my hotel room.
Oh my god!
'Cause that's not creepy at all!
[LAUGHING]
GameFly.
They're the largest online video game rental service,
with 7,000 new and classic titles across all
consoles and handhelds.
They've got plans as low as $15.95 a month.
You know how it works.
They keep sending you games, you keep sending them back,
unless you find that awesome game
that you want to hold on to.
Guess what?
Click Keep It, and you get to keep it
and they'll send you the instructions
and let you keep it at a discounted price.
That's how fricking great GameFly is!
Now I hear you, Mr. I Hate Video Games.
Guess what?
Even if you hate video games, you love Scam School,
don't you?
Why don't you sign up for a free two-week trial?
Pick a game, send it back, and say, no thank you.
I just want to show my love to Scam School.
Just head over to gamefly.com/scamschool and you
could pull a scam on them and keep us in business!
Free drinks, right?
I think I speak on behalf of the entire Scam School audience
when I say, holy crap, that was eight billion steps!
How am I supposed to know how you got this all figured out?
Can you walk us through the process here?
Yeah, it's really easy.
First thing, this is a great way to get a girl's phone number
without her knowing.
Evidently.
Right!
So you only need seven digits though, to do the trick.
Now does it ruin it if you add eight digits?
It won't work.
OK, so it's gotta be just the seven digits.
It's gotta be the seven digits.
So you don't want them to accidentally put
in the area code.
But you need to know the area code
if you're going to call them.
Yes, correct.
Right?
So the way I work that in is I say,
don't put in your area code.
For example, what is your area code?
And she said--
Right.
Of course.
Yeah, so you wouldn't put that in.
Right.
And so now I know it.
Although let me tell you, even if you don't call,
it's obvious from the reaction that this is amazing
when you just hand back their freaking number.
Right.
That was amazing!
Yeah.
First, make your prediction.
Yes.
Your fake prediction.
And it doesn't matter what this is.
Your fake prediction.
You just put down a big ass random number.
Any double digit million.
Yeah, million number.
So now, you make your prediction.
They hold on to it.
And then you ask them to enter the first three
digits of their cell phone number into a calculator.
Right.
And then they multiply by 80, eight-zero.
OK, times 80.
Plus one.
Times 250.
And then they enter the last four
of their cell phone number.
Got it.
And then they enter the last four of their cell phone number
again.
OK, got it.
So it just looks to be random.
Yep, yep, yep.
Super random.
And then they subtract 250.
OK.
And I always put in my patter that
remember last time you multiplied.
Right.
I want them to think they added it, subtracted it.
Oh, 'cause there are some math tricks.
Right.
It's like, pick a number.
Add 100.
Now subtract 100, that's your number.
Right, right.
Yeah.
And then you have them look at the prediction.
First you take a look at what the sum
that they've come up with.
It's in the millions.
Now this is the part that I like,
is that the journey to get there is so convoluted,
people think well, this is all messed up stuff.
And then you get to the end, you have that triumphant aha!
And it's just like, nothing.
Right.
And so they read the prediction.
And while they're doing that, all you
do is hit divide by two.
And when you hit divide by two, it puts their phone number
across the screen for you.
You're looking at this, you see the number,
and then you call attention to the prediction.
You say go ahead and look at the prediction, show everybody.
And while they're doing that, you have plenty of time
to be entering their phone number into your cell phone.
If you want it to be a complete mystery,
just put it down, call them, their phone will ring.
And you're like, who is that?
Go ahead and answer.
Right.
And then I say my stock line.
Hey baby, this works better at my place.
But if you want them to be astonished and amazed,
just set it in front of them, and when they see their phone
number on the screen, they're like, where did that come from?
How did he come up with that result?
OK, so the question is-- and obviously, we'll
let you have the cheat sheet that he drew up--
which one of you guys want to try this on me?
I'll do it.
Well hello, Lauren.
Hi Brian.
So what's your area code?
Oh, it's 8-6-6.
OK.
I live in toll free land.
[LAUGHS]
So we wouldn't use 8-6-6.
That's part of the number.
Oh no!
OK, that's a good point, yeah.
[INAUDIBLE]
All right.
Gotcha, gotcha.
All right.
All right, so go ahead and enter the first three
digits of your number.
Got it.
And then you're gonna go ahead and multiply by 80.
Got it.
And then make sure you're hitting equals
after each thing you're doing.
Oh yeah.
OK, got it.
All right, and then add one to that number.
Plus one.
Got it.
Multiply by 250.
Done.
So it's gonna give you a pretty big number.
Pretty big number.
So take the last four digits of your phone number.
And do what with them?
Add them back.
OK.
And then go ahead and do that again.
Oh man, that's a lot of randomness.
That's a very random number.
And then now you're gonna subtract 250.
Got it.
Why don't you go ahead and open up my prediction
and see if it matches?
Oh, so you can take a look at my phone.
Here I am.
I'm gonna slowly open up this prediction.
Oh my gosh, wait a minute!
What a disappointment!
This isn't my number at all!
My number started with nine million,
but this one starts with 12 million!
What?
This is the seven digits of my phone number!
How on earth did you do it?
[PHONE RINGING]
What?
Who's calling me from Anaheim, California?
Hello?
Hey, Brian.
I'm over here!
What? [LAUGHS] That was awesome!
Well done!
Get out of here, Noah!
No one want to talk to you.
That was awesome.
Everyone toast my good friend, Diamond Jim Tyler.
Now you got a decision to make.
Do you want to make this about getting the girl's number
and do the creepy phone call thing?
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Or do you want to go just for the pure mystery of that
shocked moment that she looks down and suddenly sees
her phone number on the fricking calculator?
That's up to you.
You can play it either way.
But either way, we want to thank Diamond Jim
Tyler for hanging out with us.
Make sure to check out his website
and buy both of his books, Bamboozlers One and Two,
available now.
And speaking of buying books, dude
why are you not buying the Scam School book?
Scamschoolbook.com.
It's huge.
It's got 80+ tricks.
It's got all the best links to all the best
episodes, behind the scenes commentary, subtle nuances
that you're not going to get from the Scam School episodes.
I am so proud of this book, but I want to hear from you guys
directly.
If you want to hit me up with your favorite bar scams,
write me directly at brian@revision3.com.
You can follow me on twitter.com/shwood.
And make sure to join us next week
with a special edition directed by M. Night Shyamalan.
Expect free beers with a twist.
See what I did there?
With a twist?
'Cause you put a twist of-- aw, screw you guys.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[BANG]
Oh my god!