Squid Game Season 3 is all set to drop its first six episodes on Netflix on June 27, bringing fans back to the deadly, high-stakes world that first shocked global audiences in 2021. With its trademark suspense and social commentary, the third and final season picks up where it left off—Gi-hun’s mission to take down the organisation behind the games intensifies, even as the mysterious Front Man remains two steps ahead. But as fans clear their schedules and prepare for binge-watching, few may recall that the show's incredible success also brought real-life chaos to someone who never signed up for the game.

In Season 1, the protagonist Seong Gi-hun receives a cryptic business card with symbols and a phone number—an invitation to the deadly game. It was meant to deepen the show’s aura of mystery. However, when fans dialled the eight-digit number out of curiosity, their phones automatically added South Korea’s standard mobile prefix “010,” turning the number into a real, functioning line.

Unbeknownst to the showrunners, they had effectively broadcasted the personal phone number of Kim Gil-young, a businesswoman in Seongju who had been using it for over ten years.

What followed was nothing short of a horror story—thousands of texts and calls flooded her phone day and night. In an interview with Money Today, Gil-young shared, “Since Squid Game aired, I’ve been receiving texts and calls 24 hours a day, to the point where it’s difficult to live my daily life… I’ve had to delete over 4,000 numbers from my phone.”

At first, Gil-young had no idea what had triggered the barrage of calls until a friend pointed out the connection to Squid Game. The calls weren’t just from curious fans; some pranksters reportedly phoned her in the middle of the night asking, “Can I join Squid Game?” before abruptly hanging up. Changing the number wasn’t an option for Gil-young, who used it for business purposes. She turned to Netflix and Siren Pictures, the show’s production company, to resolve the issue. In response, Netflix quickly edited the scene and replaced the number with a fictional one, 010-034, just weeks after the show's release. A Guardian report confirmed that Netflix had edited out the real number and issued a statement asking viewers to refrain from prank calls and messages. The company stated, “Together with the production company, we are working to resolve this matter, including editing scenes with phone numbers where necessary.”In the media frenzy that followed, the situation escalated in unexpected ways. South Korean presidential candidate Huh Kyung-young reportedly offered 100 million won to purchase the phone number, making headlines for his strange proposition. Meanwhile, reports claimed Gil-young turned down compensation offers of up to 5 million won, though Netflix has never officially commented on these negotiations.

By the time Squid Game Season 2 premiered in 2024, the infamous business card returned—but this time, with fictional numbers carefully inserted to avoid another fiasco.

The incident became a cautionary tale in entertainment circles, spotlighting the importance of vetting even the smallest production details. According to a trivia post on IMDB, the show originally used only an eight-digit number, not accounting for South Korea’s tendency to auto-append the “010” prefix—an oversight that turned fiction into far-reaching reality.

For Gil-young, the viral fame was unwanted. Her ordeal may not have involved life-or-death games, but it certainly highlighted how quickly the boundaries between on-screen fiction and real-world consequences can blur.

As the much-anticipated Season 3 rolls out across global time zones—from 12:30 p.m. IST in India to 5 p.m. in Japan—millions will return to the thrilling universe of Squid Game. But behind the blood-red sets and masked men lies a strange footnote in TV history: a woman whose phone never stopped ringing, thanks to eight digits that should never have been real.

Because sometimes, the most surprising twist in a survival drama… isn’t even in the script.