Reason why you should never say 108 to Siri

Voice assistants like Amazon's Alexa and Apple's Siri help us out with a lot of day-to-day queries - saving us the need to type anything to search.

Since Siri's introduction in 2011, it has encountered a fair share of odd requests because quite frankly we are a curious but weird species.

But there's one specific instruction that should be avoided.

Back in 2017, a trending but foolish social media prank encouraged Apple users people to say '108' to their Siri, with one writing: 'I just found out you can 3 way FaceTime now you just say '108' to Siri and then you can call two people.'

And it seems that some took the bait.

But, as it turns out, 108 is India's emergency service and saying it will prompt the assistant to call the local emergency services depending on where you are.

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So, you'll be transferred to the number 999 in the case of the UK or 911 for the US.

The trend stirred enough problems for the emergency services to be overrun with unnecessary calls that celebrities like actor Devon Sawa urged people not to take part in the prank.

'Whatever you do, do NOT tell Siri '108,'' the Final Destination and Chucky star wrote on Twitter in 2018 before being rebranded as X.

Despite the warnings, Sawa's tweet had the opposite effect and caused some followers to try the Siri hack for themselves.

Although the phone assistant gives users a five-second time span to cancel or make the emergency call, it didn't stop a wave of panic among curious iPhone users.

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Prank calls to emergency services not only waste valuable resources but also divert attention from real emergencies.

Around 240 million calls are made to 911 in the United States each year and doing such prank calls can be considered a punishable crime.

'If 9-1-1 operators are trying to answer these calls, that means that a real emergency call might not be answered as quickly as it needs to be answered,' a Facebook post for the police department in Lewistown in the US read.

So, remember that not all pranks are that funny - and this one could land you in some serious trouble.