A telephone caller, posing as a representative of a fire alarm company, convinced employees of a Comfort Suites Hotel to activate the sprinkler system, which resulted in thousands of dollars worth of damage. (
tricities.com)
This type of prank is definitely a recurring theme (see the
rectal exam prank call,
strip-search prank call, and
satellite medical exam call), but I'm not sure what to call it. Maybe the "manipulative phone call prank," though that's not very catchy.
Comments
Something is fishy with this whole story.
Mo
telephish
phrank
phauthority (phone-false-authority)
Bavarian fire-drill (see urbandictionary.com)
cullible (callable+gullible)
(yes, bad)
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/breaking/6516952.html
This one with foamy goodness.
(2nd attempt, didn't show?)