You’d probably need someone else to call on your behalf. If you have, how did it turn out?
Edit: There seems to be some confusion about what I’m asking. I’m not talking about fake references. I’m talking about calling your reference on the sly to see if they’re actually going to give you a positive review.
For example things don’t go well with your landlord and you suspect they’re going to depict you as bad tenant when you put them down as a reference while looking for a new place.
The same thing could be said for bosses and jobs.
At one of my old jobs, someone who was a manager at another business called and assumed I was a manager as well. He asked for a reference on an employee who had recently quit. The guy who left hadn’t been very good at the job, but he was a good person, clearly trying something different in a new field. I gave him a good “reference”, and the other manager sounded happy.
I wonder how it went for my old coworker…