Scammers. We can all agree that they are the absolute worst. The universal hatred of these criminals and their relentless pestering via their infuriating robotic phone calls—a particularly prevalent scam in the U.S.—led to the emergence of the “We’ve Been Trying To Reach You About Your Car’s Extended Warranty” meme.
The meme began back in 2016 on Twitter and was named as such to mock the commonly used phrase that those involved in the scam would use to lure in their victims. It has since been used in all sorts of funny sketches, mostly when someone irritating or unwanted is trying to get attention. With the release of Starfield, we can now add video games to the list of forms that the meme has taken, as, if you are lucky, you might find yourself stumbling upon a fun Easter egg that references it.
The encounter seems to be a random one (I found it while grav jumping to get to the Porrima star system) wherein you will suddenly be hailed by an unknown ship. If you accept the call, the robotic voice on the other side will tell you that they have been trying to reach you about your ship’s extended warranty. That’s right: you can’t even avoid these guys in the depths of the deepest space.
You then get a few different options on how to respond. You can say that you’re interested, and if so, the robo scam ship will start to list details about three different ship warranty plans, with each one becoming progressively more expensive. When I experienced this encounter, I feigned interest just to see where the conversation would go, but since I didn’t have the credits to fork out for any of the plans (I don’t think I would have been willing to even if I did have the credits), the ship left me with a somewhat eerie promise of getting back to me about it.
You can also shut down the scammer ship with your words, telling them that you aren’t interested, or you can do so by force. Yes, you can go the violent route and straight-up attack them. Blowing it to smithereens is likely to be the most popular choice here, likely because it will be a cathartic experience for all the players who have had to deal with this kind of scam in the real world.
Here’s hoping that as we continue our playthrough of Starfield, we will encounter more fun memes, references and Easter eggs or, if not, just another chance to obliterate something highly annoying. I’ll settle for that, too.
