Netflix publishes ‘The Squid Game’ after a woman was bombarded with phone pranks

(CNN) – Netflix said it will edit scenes that include a phone number in the hit show “Squid Game,” known as “The Squid Game” in Latin America, after a woman in South Korea said it had been inundated with thousands of calls and text messages.

Kim Gil-young owns a dessert shop in Seongju County and has been using the number for 16 years, he told CNN on Thursday.

When the popular South Korean fiction drama “The Squid Game” first premiered, Kim said he was receiving thousands of calls a day. In the past few days, he has received hundreds of calls and texts, he said.

This is seriously disrupting his life, he said, explaining that he is now taking medication to calm his nerves after a doctor diagnosed him with an acute stress disorder.

“I can’t concentrate because unknown numbers call me repeatedly,” he told CNN.

Netflix confirmed to CNN that it had edited scenes, including the phone number.

“Together with the production company, we are working to resolve this issue, including editing scenes with phone numbers when necessary,” the company said in a statement to CNN on Thursday.

CNN contacted Netflix for further comment on Kim’s situation.

Kim said she originally took the number for her personal line, but started using it to run her business when she opened her dessert shop a year and a half ago.

Since “The Squid Game” was released, it has been impossible for him to do business with the phone number, he said. However, she says she can’t put it down.

“I had previous clients who called to complain that they couldn’t reach me. One caller asked about the product, but when I offered it to him, he said they were joking and hung up,” Kim said.

“I can’t tell the difference between genuine business calls and prank calls.”

The show tells the story of a game in which contestants, who are deeply in debt, play childhood games to win a huge cash prize. The downside is that the losers will die.

Despite hitting the streaming service with virtually no fanfare, “Squid Game” has become what Netflix is ​​billing as possibly its “most successful show of all time.”

Kim said an anonymous caller asked if his number was the right one to play “The Squid Game.” She says she also received a lot of text messages with bad language, including a message calling her “bitch.”

One person called her and asked her to make him one of the coverall-clad officers on the show, while others asked to play the game, she said.

Kim said he spoke with a representative of the show, who said the situation was unforeseen and offered him one million South Korean won (approximately US $ 840) in compensation to pay for a new phone.

However, Kim said the offer was not enough considering that the phone number was used for business and that he had already paid for the ads with the digits.

“They said they are sorry, but honestly, I’m not sure if they are really sorry. I wonder if they would have reacted the same way if I was not an individual but a large company,” Kim said.

“In my opinion, the show is number one in the world and it made a lot of money. But they told me that they are also in a difficult position.”