Fun responses to spam phone calls
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@jinpa said in Fun responses to spam phone calls:
one time even got a scammer to send him $25.
The one I just read got the scammer to send him $80.
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@Gustav said in Fun responses to spam phone calls:
I wonder how it'll impact my spam call volume this week.
Monday: they used to call once or twice a day, today I haven't heard from them.
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@HardwareGeek said in Fun responses to spam phone calls:
The one I just read got the scammer to send him $80.
Was it recent or many years ago? I had thought that I had read that the site had instituted a no money policy, presumably because of potential legal reasons.
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@jinpa 2004
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@jinpa said in Fun responses to spam phone calls:
scammers
Scammers?!
Nigerian Prince Emails With Good News: Famalam – 01:30
— BBC Three
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@Gustav said in Fun responses to spam phone calls:
I had a spam call on Friday that started "blah blah blah we can offer you medical insurance 30% lower than what you currently pay". And I asked, "how do you know how much I pay for medical insurance?" And they instantly hung up. So I called them back, somebody completely different answered. So I explain what just happened and they hung up. So I call again, explain the situation again, but they interrupt me and ask "do I know you?" So I replied, "you know me enough to know how much I pay for insurance!" Hung up. A few more calls, a few more increasingly angry responses from the guy until he stopped picking up completely.
I wonder how it'll impact my spam call volume this week.
Thursday update: not a single health insurance call so far. I think I discovered a lifehack.
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@Gustav said in Fun responses to spam phone calls:
@Gustav said in Fun responses to spam phone calls:
I had a spam call on Friday that started "blah blah blah we can offer you medical insurance 30% lower than what you currently pay". And I asked, "how do you know how much I pay for medical insurance?" And they instantly hung up. So I called them back, somebody completely different answered. So I explain what just happened and they hung up. So I call again, explain the situation again, but they interrupt me and ask "do I know you?" So I replied, "you know me enough to know how much I pay for insurance!" Hung up. A few more calls, a few more increasingly angry responses from the guy until he stopped picking up completely.
I wonder how it'll impact my spam call volume this week.
Thursday update: not a single health insurance call so far. I think I discovered a lifehack.
Way back in the late Pleistocene (we're talking nineteen eighty something) I was getting a lot of spam calls offering me lower rates on my long distance phone service. More than one actually promised to save me $X (naming a specific figure) per month, only then asking how much I usually spent.
Each call ended almost immediately when I told them I hadn't made a single long distance call in over two years.
If I could have got the "$X per month" less promise in writing I would have jumped at it, since it meant they'd have to send me a check for that amount every month.
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@da-Doctah I don't think it would work like that. On the other hand, if they promised it and you started making $X worth of long distance phone calls every month...
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@Gustav said in Fun responses to spam phone calls:
@Gustav said in Fun responses to spam phone calls:
I had a spam call on Friday that started "blah blah blah we can offer you medical insurance 30% lower than what you currently pay". And I asked, "how do you know how much I pay for medical insurance?" And they instantly hung up. So I called them back, somebody completely different answered. So I explain what just happened and they hung up. So I call again, explain the situation again, but they interrupt me and ask "do I know you?" So I replied, "you know me enough to know how much I pay for insurance!" Hung up. A few more calls, a few more increasingly angry responses from the guy until he stopped picking up completely.
I wonder how it'll impact my spam call volume this week.
Thursday update: not a single health insurance call so far. I think I discovered a lifehack.
I'm surprised that you had an actual callback number. I guess that means it was a "legit" company with shitty practices instead of a scammer.
Last week, I got a call from a guy claiming to be from Cox Internet. They had reports of outages or something in my area and were calling all of their customers.
Cox is the cable provider around here and lots of people use them but we have Verizon FiOS, so I started laying into the guy. He had a bit of an accent. Sounded vaguely Eastern European. Definitely not Indian.
Later that day I did see some Cox vans in the neighborhood, but it still doesn't explain why they'd call me since I've never been a customer of theirs.
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@boomzilla said in Fun responses to spam phone calls:
@Gustav said in Fun responses to spam phone calls:
@Gustav said in Fun responses to spam phone calls:
I had a spam call on Friday that started "blah blah blah we can offer you medical insurance 30% lower than what you currently pay". And I asked, "how do you know how much I pay for medical insurance?" And they instantly hung up. So I called them back, somebody completely different answered. So I explain what just happened and they hung up. So I call again, explain the situation again, but they interrupt me and ask "do I know you?" So I replied, "you know me enough to know how much I pay for insurance!" Hung up. A few more calls, a few more increasingly angry responses from the guy until he stopped picking up completely.
I wonder how it'll impact my spam call volume this week.
Thursday update: not a single health insurance call so far. I think I discovered a lifehack.
I'm surprised that you had an actual callback number. I guess that means it was a "legit" company with shitty practices instead of a scammer.
Nah, it was 100% scammers. When I called back, the person who picked up was a very confused Indian guy who did NOT immediately deny it was him or his company who just called me about insurance.
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@Gustav said in Fun responses to spam phone calls:
@boomzilla said in Fun responses to spam phone calls:
@Gustav said in Fun responses to spam phone calls:
@Gustav said in Fun responses to spam phone calls:
I had a spam call on Friday that started "blah blah blah we can offer you medical insurance 30% lower than what you currently pay". And I asked, "how do you know how much I pay for medical insurance?" And they instantly hung up. So I called them back, somebody completely different answered. So I explain what just happened and they hung up. So I call again, explain the situation again, but they interrupt me and ask "do I know you?" So I replied, "you know me enough to know how much I pay for insurance!" Hung up. A few more calls, a few more increasingly angry responses from the guy until he stopped picking up completely.
I wonder how it'll impact my spam call volume this week.
Thursday update: not a single health insurance call so far. I think I discovered a lifehack.
I'm surprised that you had an actual callback number. I guess that means it was a "legit" company with shitty practices instead of a scammer.
Nah, it was 100% scammers. When I called back, the person who picked up was a very confused Indian guy who did NOT immediately deny it was him or his company who just called me about insurance.
When I get scammers they're always spoofing a local number. Once it was my own.
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@boomzilla said in Fun responses to spam phone calls:
When I get scammers they're always spoofing a local number. Once it was my own.
They don't always bother with that. is a universal virtue after all.
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@boomzilla said in Fun responses to spam phone calls:
When I get scammers they're always spoofing a local number. Once it was my own.
I’ve not had that, but one easy way with which I recognise scam calls, is that they all have a (presumably spoofed) foreign number. Nobody in 0039 or 0014 (two that I just found in my phone logs) should have my number, so why would someone from there be calling me? Especially in English with a thick Indian accent, which they invariably have if I pick up anyway.
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@Gurth we don't have metric caller ID so it's just
xxx-xxx-xxxx
formatted numbers.
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@boomzilla try calling yourself from another country. There will be +1 (or 001) in front.
I mean... you know what I mean.
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@boomzilla said in Fun responses to spam phone calls:
xxx-xxx-xxxx
formatted numbers.That’s the thing here, all you see (or at least, all my phone shows) is a string of numbers with no breaks: 00393456010957 or 0014029357733 (those are the full numbers I referred to earlier). This makes them less obviously foreign to a lot of people, I think, though the 00 at the start gives it away if you know that (and a lot of people don’t, is my experience).
That last one looks like an American number, BTW: 001-402-935-7733 — but only if you add the dashes. Without those, the tendency is to read it as 0014-etc.
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@Gurth LOL that's Paypal calling you.
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@Gustav Oh! Then that was probably a legitimate call. Unlike all the other 00-ones I found in my call logs.
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@Gurth said in Fun responses to spam phone calls:
looks like an American number, BTW: 001-402-935-7733 — but only if you add the dashes. Without those, the tendency is to read it as 0014-etc.
Don't people read numbers by looking for escape sequences first whenever the number is beyond the expected length? If not, I suppose there's no helping them...
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@Gurth said in Fun responses to spam phone calls:
that was probably a legitimate call
Or a spammer spoofing PayPal's number.
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@Gribnit I find a leading + or 00 is easier to spot than unusual length.
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@Gribnit Expected number format in the Netherlands is a
0
followed by either a6
(for mobile numbers) or two or three other digits (as the area code for non-mobile numbers) and then enough digits to make it ten in all, including the leading0
. Including dashes, brackets and spaces is entirely optional and basically personal preference for legibility. My phone just shows numbers only, with no formatting, unless the caller is in my address book and I formatted the number like that myself.Two zeroes at the start already confuses some people, and a lot people probably don’t really register them and assume that (say)
0039
is actually the area code039
(which, incidentally, doesn’t exist).@HardwareGeek said in Fun responses to spam phone calls:
@Gurth said in Fun responses to spam phone calls:
that was probably a legitimate call
Or a spammer spoofing PayPal's number.
I think that particular one was legitimate — when @Gustav mentioned it was PayPal, I recalled that I had to confirm a transaction via the phone some time ago. But yeah, why would somebody not spoof that number?
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ngl I could use some more rest.
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@Gribnit said in Fun responses to spam phone calls:
@Gurth said in Fun responses to spam phone calls:
looks like an American number, BTW: 001-402-935-7733 — but only if you add the dashes. Without those, the tendency is to read it as 0014-etc.
Don't people read numbers by looking for escape sequences first whenever the number is beyond the expected length? If not, I suppose there's no helping them...
What's the "expected" length? It is far too variable.
Long ago, just 2 digits for your local number were fine; they were changed later on. Not sure what happened to 3 digit number, but 4 digit numbers are still common. While my number is 7 digits.
Next, add the obligatory0
for the national grid, plus 2 to 5 digits for the area code (Frankfurt, Munich, Berlin have 2 digits, virtually all rural West German places have 4 digits, East German places even 5 digits).
Both my landline number and local mobile number have a total of 12 digits. My Thai mobile number will show 13 digits (006665.......).
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@boomzilla said in Fun responses to spam phone calls:
ngl I could use some more rest.
That's not just a rest. It's the rest.
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@BernieTheBernie well yeah. Originally I had a telephone, then they made me have a number.
Then they made me have a 4-digit number. Then they added 3 in front of that. Then 3 more. Recently things have got even weirder.So when it's more than 1 digit, I read from the front.
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@Gribnit said in Fun responses to spam phone calls:
@boomzilla said in Fun responses to spam phone calls:
ngl I could use some more rest.
That's not just a rest. It's the rest.
The rest of what?
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@da-Doctah said in Fun responses to spam phone calls:
@Gribnit said in Fun responses to spam phone calls:
@boomzilla said in Fun responses to spam phone calls:
ngl I could use some more rest.
That's not just a rest. It's the rest.
The rest of what?
The rest of the Walmart gift cards.
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@Watson said in Fun responses to spam phone calls:
@da-Doctah said in Fun responses to spam phone calls:
@Gribnit said in Fun responses to spam phone calls:
@boomzilla said in Fun responses to spam phone calls:
ngl I could use some more rest.
That's not just a rest. It's the rest.
The rest of what?
The rest of the Walmart gift cards.
Gettin' some serious Scrooge McDuck swimming in gold coins vibes here.
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@BernieTheBernie said in Fun responses to spam phone calls:
What's the "expected" length? It is far too variable.
I would assume “expected length in your country”. Which is fine if nobody ever calls you from an international number, but once they do those expectations go out the window.
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@Gurth Anything which only shows numbers is automatically suspicious.
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@Gurth said in Fun responses to spam phone calls:
@BernieTheBernie said in Fun responses to spam phone calls:
What's the "expected" length? It is far too variable.
I would assume “expected length in your country”. Which is fine if nobody ever calls you from an international number, but once they do those expectations go out the window.
I can't remember the last time that happened without it being some guy from India calling on a spoofed local number.
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@boomzilla Been getting a lot of robocalls lately. On the plus side, the computer-generated voice is easier to listen to than an entry-level Indian telemarketing droid, and it's pretty obvious that they're trying to scam as we're certain nobody in the house has an Amazon Prime subscription.
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@Gurth said in Fun responses to spam phone calls:
if nobody ever calls you from an international number
Which is probably true for 99% of USAians who aren't first-generation (or maybe second) immigrants. I may have gotten calls from Canada when I worked for a client with an office there, but Canada uses the same numbering system and country code (1) as the US and isn't obviously international unless caller ID identifies the origin. Otherwise, international calls for work have been Skype/Teams/Zoom or something like that; normal phone calls, never. If you work in sales and marketing for a company that sells to foreign markets, sure. If you have close family or friends in other countries, yeah, but that means you're probably a recent (first- or second-generation, not necessarily recent in years) immigrant or a (former?) ex-pat, so You're Different™.
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@HardwareGeek said in Fun responses to spam phone calls:
If you have close family or friends in other countries, yeah, but that means you're probably a recent (first- or second-generation, not necessarily recent in years) immigrant or a (former?) ex-pat, so You're Different™.
Or that it's the friends/family that have moved.
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@dkf True, but that's probably even less common for a USAian than being an immigrant or ex-pat.
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@BernieTheBernie said in Fun responses to spam phone calls:
@Gribnit said in Fun responses to spam phone calls:
@Gurth said in Fun responses to spam phone calls:
looks like an American number, BTW: 001-402-935-7733 — but only if you add the dashes. Without those, the tendency is to read it as 0014-etc.
Don't people read numbers by looking for escape sequences first whenever the number is beyond the expected length? If not, I suppose there's no helping them...
What's the "expected" length? It is far too variable.
Long ago, just 2 digits for your local number were fine; they were changed later on. Not sure what happened to 3 digit number, but 4 digit numbers are still common. While my number is 7 digits.
Next, add the obligatory0
for the national grid, plus 2 to 5 digits for the area code (Frankfurt, Munich, Berlin have 2 digits, virtually all rural West German places have 4 digits, East German places even 5 digits).
Both my landline number and local mobile number have a total of 12 digits. My Thai mobile number will show 13 digits (006665.......).I saw a similar thing in Argentina. In rural areas, telephone numbers were 6 digits, in urban areas, 7 digits, and 8 in Buenos Aires.
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@Mason_Wheeler said in Fun responses to spam phone calls:
In rural areas, telephone numbers were 6 digits, in urban areas, 7 digits, and 8 in Buenos Aires.
I love this idea. It would work well with my delayed-legislation plan (rural areas get a 25 year delay, normal urban gets 5, and megalopolii get none).
Because face it, hicks are dumber'n shit.
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@Gribnit Next time, use the
Payment Required
return code.
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@boomzilla said in Fun responses to spam phone calls:
I recall that some of Gibson's cyberpunk novels had advertisements chasing the characters through the network. (Or was that Snow Crash?)
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@PotatoEngineer Not Gibson’s novels, IIRC, but Ido think Snow Crash mentions advertising in the (real) metaverse.
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@Gurth Trying to remember now which novel it was that had one character telling another a story about someone who whacked himself a couple of weeks after his corneal implant display started spamming him 24/7 with ads in a language he didn't even know.
Wow. Metagossip.