Crank calls, also known as nuisance calls, prank calls, hoax calls or bogus calls, refer to calls made with the intention of annoying, harassing or misleading the recipient. Prank calls are often made anonymously and can be harmless or malicious, depending on the content of the call. The term crank call originated in the early 1900s when telephones were becoming more common and it referred to someone who turned the handle of a manual phone to raise the attention of the operator. Nowadays, with smartphones and caller ID, crank calls are becoming less frequent, but the need for synonyms to identify these types of calls remains.