If I was magically in charge, I would make it so if you got an unwanted text or call you report it and the phone company has to pay you like $10.
They don't deal with this problem because they only care about profit.
If I was magically in charge, I would make it so if you got an unwanted text or call you report it and the phone company has to pay you like $10.
They don't deal with this problem because they only care about profit.
How are people getting so many spam calls? I've gotten maybe 2 in the last 5 years. Not that I want spam calls but people consistently reporting getting several a week, or even day, makes me concerned I've done something wrong. Like some government system I'm supposed to be signed up to but I've somehow missed
Some mobile networks have spam protection that's enabled automatically.
You could also have a "clean" number, especially if you don't use your phone number anywhere online, haven't answered a spam call before, and nobody used it before you (or the previous user was a long time ago).
Spam callers can't robodial literally every number, so they rely on lists of phone numbers that are known to be good/active, for example if they've answered a spam call before, if the number has been in a data leak, etc.
I don't know if this is still accurate, but I have a friend who used to answer calls from unknown numbers with "hello, this is First name Lastname."
I don't even answer calls from unknown numbers. His approach boggled my mind, in part because of what you just said.
Older people do this a lot. Either their full name, or "Lastname residence"
The scary thing these days is that someone needs just a few samples of your voice to be able to clone it using AI. I suspect that scammers will do that, if they're not already doing it, then use it to scam family members. We're going to get to a point where we can't trust people are who they say they are.
I get them because I was jobless for six months. Now that a lot of job sites sell your data and some jobs are straight up fake to collect data, it is so hard to stay off a list.
I was talking about this with my partner. The meta now is to use a dedicated email and phone number when applying for jobs.
If you start at a new job and get a phone number that happens to have been owned by someone that signed up to a lot of stuff then you will get them... I sometimes also get random phonecall from old ppl that goes "oh shit wrong person" or text messages wishing me a happy birthday, I feel bad for those ppl. In the beginning did I answer them but it was annoying after x amount.
Apparently did I get a old mans phone number who was very loved but very bad at communicating that he changed his phone number and also signed up for many things. So I only answer if it is with in my work hours otherwise do I just ignore the phone call completely.
I used to not get any as well. Then for a new job I had to sign up with an American company, and since I didn't have a company phone yet, I used my private number.
Since then it's been multiple calls/messages per day, but over the years it's died down. I fucking hate it so much.
I got a lot of spam calls when I started signing up for "rewards programs" and eventually stopped signing up for them. I get 1-2 a week now.
Ordered some stuff online from Merrell, two days later, order cancelled because I didn’t pick up the phone to verify an order which I had already gone through two different sets of two-factor identification to complete. No worries, upon considering redoing the order, it was too much money anyway. Thanks for saving me a buck, Merrell!
I've been pretty successful at reducing spam calls by simply reporting the calls to the USA's donotcall registry LINK HERE and also pretending to be a robot trying to take up as much of the scammer's time as possible.
Of course the BEST defence is to have a company find and remove your number from online as much as possible, but that's trickier for businesses.
since STIR/SHAKEN rolled out, the scam and robocalls here have really dropped off. only a few per week now.. even to the phone numbers that are published (intentionally) online.
of the ones that get through, nearly all of them are coming through new voip points-of-presence popping-up in small towns all over our very rural part of the country.
I'll answer almost every call I can, but not say anything. I've learned that they wait for an answer before starting their shpeel, so if I answer and remain quiet, they hang up thinking I'm another bot. Then I block the number to be safe.
Call screening features are great. iPhones recently added a call screener that pre-answers the call to ask who is calling. I know at least Pixels have had it for a while.
Funny thing about that though is that it asks the caller to say their name but many of the spam caller just say my name, so now my iPhone says maybe: my name as the caller.
To me, that’s a flag that the caller isn’t worth my time. More often than not if they refuse to identify themselves, they’re not actually legit, so the mechanism still works.
Oh absolutely, it’s just funny seeing your own name pop up as the “caller”
What did virtual machines ever do to you?
I listen to the first couple of seconds of voicemails but 99% of the time I'm deleting at second 2 or 3.
I did get a needed call the other day, our cat had gotten its collar off and a neighbor took it to a shelter. Fortunately he was microchipped and we got a call very quickly and got him, he only had to spend about an hour at the shelter. He was still very stressed out. The neighbor was kind of a dick, there are a lot of cats without collars in our area and most of them are just outside cats that get fed outside.
Our cat used to be one of those, but the owner died and we took it, and he's 13 and doesn't want to wear a collar so he figures out how to break that mother fucker off all the time. If he didn't have a breakaway collar, he would probably choke himself to death.
You do more than I do

Don't participate in contests where you get a code, and you have to go to a site to verify that code and give your data. They'll sell that phone number immediately to telemarketers.
Don't sign up for things that need a phone number
Job application
She doesn't get it, she owes the IRS money! All they need are Apple gift cards to clear it up /s
I don't answer anything that isn't identified and that I recognize. If they leave a message I will check it. It's a pain that so many in the medical and service industries use unidentified numbers forcing telephone tag and they don't use email or text only phone calls.
God that's how i feel about email at work. 99% of the inbound shit is trash, that 1% is my ultimate duty though.
This is the way.
From what I understand there seem to be some sort of lists that mention activity of any given number based on whether you answered a call so I literally never answer if I don't know the number and now I rarely get a spam call. Like maybe 4-5 times in a year. My number is probably flagged as inactive or something on these lists.
Unfortunately, some of us have to. I need my (and my bosses) phone number on danger / caution tape so people can ask me why its there & if can they ignore it.
fuck the mobile system
sms, phone calls, sim cards, mobile data system
sms is way less feature complete and structurally good than options like Signal, Fluxer, and Matrix
same with phone calls
sim cards and esims are crap and could be replaced with accounts or Privacy Pass style anonymous keys
mobile data system is overcomplicated and has no reason not to just be an isp that offers mobile data
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