As you may have heard, a study found that some people fake taking cell-phone calls to get out of face-to-face conversations.

I would never do this, but I have to admit that it sounds like an effective tactic. Unless, of course, there’s no way to easily excuse yourself and you are forced to pretend to have a conversation with the fake “caller” right in front of the person you’re trying to avoid talking to.

I know I wouldn’t be able to keep it credible. I’d either sound too vague or else, even worse, I’d try to come up with some specific topic and make up a conversation so outlandish it would give me away. It would be like a bad Bob Newhart routine. I would try to think of some subject to fake talking about and I’d end up saying:

“Hello, yes? Oh, hi! Oh, really? Well, I’m sorry to hear you were abducted by aliens from the Andromeda galaxy…”

People would get suspicious.