How to Sound Like Someone Else on a Phone Call

Whether you're faking an illness to call in sick for work or prank-calling a friend, the ability to sound like someone else over the phone can be a useful skill. Here's a few tricks to help you learn how to disguise your voice over the phone.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

1. Fake an accent. A good way to fake an accent is to imitate a voice that's already familiar to you, whether it belongs to a character in a movie or TV show or to someone you know.
2. Call when you have a cold. When your sinuses are congested or your throat is raspy, your voice takes on a completely different tone that's often unrecognizable.
3. Schedule the call for as soon as you wake up. In the early hours of the morning, your voice sounds so different than it normally does throughout the day that you could easily be mistaken for someone else over the phone.
4. Obstruct the mouthpiece of your phone. Place a tissue over the mouthpiece to muffle your voice, or move your hand around over the mouthpiece to create interference.
5. Talk on the phone at work. Have you ever noticed that when people call you from their workplace, they often use their "work voice?" That's because they need to maintain a professional image for any coworkers who might overhear them, so their voice takes on a different tone than it might otherwise have when they're relaxed.
6. Use your computer. Many word processing programs have the ability to "read" back anything you type in a computer-generated voice. If you're going for a robotic sound, this is the best method for you.
7. Buy a voice disguiser. Gadgets such as Voice Changer II easily hooks up to your phone and are adjustable to the desirable pitch.

Tips & Warnings

• Block your phone number. If you're trying to trick the person on the other end of the line, don't forget that most people today have caller ID.
• Don't harass people. It's one thing to prank your friends and loved ones on occasion, but if you prank call random strangers, you might wind up with some legal ramifications.