A 23-year-old YouTuber's plan to crash an alleged scam call center in India with a squad of dancing SpongeBobs has become the talk of the internet.
Justin Ho walked into a Delhi office building alongside six people in oversized SpongeBob SquarePants costumes, boombox in hand. The clip opens with Ho announcing the premise plainly: "raid a call center in India."
The costumed crew bypassed front desk staff and made it onto the main office floor, where they blasted music and danced beside confused employees at their workstations. When security guards moved in with batons, the padded mascot suits appeared to absorb the hits. The SpongeBobs surrounded the guards and kept going, holding their ground for several minutes before finally leaving.
In an Instagram message statement to the Hindustan Times, Ho said: "We got information from inside sources that they were a scam. Everyone was scared when we first showed up. Then they started laughing."
Ho's stunt joins a wave of online vigilantism targeting fraudulent scam operations. Fake call centers operating in India frequently impersonate Amazon or Microsoft support staff and focus on victims in the US, sometimes targeting elderly people for their lack of tech knowledge. YouTubers Scammer Payback and Trilogy Media have been credited by US federal prosecutors for helping expose a $65 million fraud scheme that targeted thousands of seniors. In 2022, Mark Rober teamed up with Jim Browning and Trilogy Media to hit alleged Kolkata call centers with glitter bombs, stink bombs, and live cockroaches.
