17 ms·

Every time I get a call from a number I don't recognize I do this ridiculous dance where I try to Google the number (usually on my phone) before the ringing sto

by ohazi 10y ago

Every time I get a call from a number I don't recognize I do this ridiculous dance where I try to Google the number (usually on my phone) before the ringing stops. If it shows up on enough spam caller sites (whocallsme, etc), I don't answer and add the number to my "SPAM" contact that currently contains about a billion phone numbers. It's ridiculous that it took Google so long to implement such a basic feature on their phones.

mszcz 10y ago
Oh, I love calls from telemarketers ;) It's a sport for me, a fun pass time. I'm trying to sell them shit before they have a chance to finish their pitch. Or I hang up on myself (hangup when I'm speaking) and see how many times they call me back (current record is at 4 before the guy figured it out). Or pretend that I don't own a phone while on a phonecall with them. Or ask them for their personal cell number so I can call during lunch and discuss this. BTW Randy Pausch gets credit for most of those.
- MichaelBurge 10y ago
  They usually get paid by the hour, and if you're on HN there's a decent chance your time is way more valuable than theirs. It'd be cheaper to use a service like Jolly Roger to keep them busy: http://www.jollyrogertelco.com/ http://www.jollyrogertelco.com/
  - mszcz 10y ago
    Probably true. However, those calls usually last couple of minutes tops and I'm always in a good mood afterwards. To me it's more of a IRL equivalent of watching cat gifs to reset your brain every now and then ;) I don't mind them getting paid as long as I can have a good time at their expense. And hey, maybe me laughing at them will cause them to reconsider their chosen profession (but not holding my breath). EDIT: typo.
    - jacquesm 10y ago
      > And hey, maybe me laughing at them will cause them to reconsider their chosen profession (but not holding my breath). Maybe their 'chosen profession' has less in terms of freedom of choice than you think it does. There are only so many low-wage jobs available and I figure most call center operators are happy with the crappy job they've got rather than with the high moral standards one they don't or can't get.
      - mszcz 10y ago
        Well, that's one side of the argument and I get it. However, if you extend it a bit further it might mean that the inability to get a better job justifies you taking one that hurts other people - some of those telemarketers are selling useless shit, scamy subscriptions, etc. I don't fall for those but I'm not the only one receving those calls.
  - lazaroclapp 10y ago
    The employee gets paid, the company paying for the spamming gets a decreased ROI, mszcz gets some amusement. Not my way of dealing with these sort of calls, but in this particular case it seems like win, win and win.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
hiou 10y ago
Probably because it's possibly liable.
jt2190 10y ago
Why do you do so much work? Why not just ignore the call, and see if they leave a message?
- pavel_lishin 10y ago
  Or pick it up, listen for three seconds, and decide then?
  - kinkdr 10y ago
    Honestly. The callers are breaking the social etiquette by making unsolicited calls, however if we pick up we feel obliged to be polite. Fuck that, hang up on their face.
    - pavel_lishin 10y ago
      > Fuck that, hang up on their face. What's what I'm suggesting.
      - kinkdr 10y ago
        And I couldn't agree more :)
  - 01Michael10 10y ago
    Why?
    - pavel_lishin 10y ago
      Easier than listening to a 2 second voicemail.
      - 01Michael10 10y ago
        Huh? 99% of telemarketers don't leave a VM.
deathanatos 10y ago
I find Googling phone numbers to return nothing but junk sites trying to leach ad revenue off of those queries, with little in the way of actual information. I just don't answer the call. If I don't know who you are, and you can't be bothered to leave a message … why should I care? Empirically, half of upstate New York seems to think my number is the one they're looking for. Back before I stopped answering calls, I had to repeatedly tell one unknown number over SMS that this wasn't the number they were looking for. Over SMS. I hope that that number didn't have a smartphone, as my reply of "This isn't the number you're looking for." would quite probably have been right there on the screen as he typed in the next message, again to the wrong number. I actually have a few of the more common wrong numbers in my contacts list, and some of them still call regularly. (Never leaving a message.)
- godzillabrennus 10y ago
  I have some local area code 867-5309 numbers and the number of calls I get is insane.
  - _asummers 10y ago
    Did you ask for that number or was it random?
    - MBlume 10y ago
      "numbers", so I'm guessing it wasn't random.
      - thaumasiotes 10y ago
        I very much doubt it's possible to get an 867-5309 without specifically requesting it.
      - creeble 10y ago
        You have to be over...40? https://www.amazon.com/867-5309-Jenny-Song-That-Saved/dp/1936185555 https://www.amazon.com/867-5309-Jenny-Song-That-Saved/dp/193...
iamshs 10y ago
Caller IDs can be spoofed too. Around year back, I started getting calls asking me to stop calling them, when I had never called them in the first place. Then it clicked, someone had spam called by spoofing my number. What is googling going to do in this case?
- x0054 10y ago
  Somehow this has happened to my parents. No clue how, but they started getting phone calls from me, calls I never made. It was just some call center in india with a credit card scam, so it was obvious that it wasn't me once they picked up.
- kodis 10y ago
  Even stranger, I'll occasionally get a call on my home phone which the Caller ID identifies as coming from my home phone with me as the caller -- to myself! At least it makes it easy for me to spot as a spoofed caller.
saiko-chriskun 10y ago
I just plain don't pick up unscheduled calls.
sowbug 10y ago
> It's ridiculous that it took Google so long to implement such a basic feature on their phones. Do other phone vendors do this?
- Klathmon 10y ago
  Yeah it's a pet peeve of mine when people call any feature a "basic" one. How is this basic? At a minimum it requires a database of spam numbers, a way to automatically add new ones, probably some way to deprecate numbers that are no longer spammy, a UI, and I'm sure some legal work to ensure they won't break any laws.
  - derefr 10y ago
    Oddly, Apple already has a "database of spam numbers, a way to automatically add new ones", etc., but it only functions within iMessage. Calls from the same numbers don't get detected, and there's no option to flag callers. (You can block them, but not "report as spam.")
- pandaman 10y ago
  Samsung dialer on my S7 does warn about potential spammers. I still use Google dialer because Samsung just looks very shabby. Another feature, which makes me facepalm in Google dialer is inability to block a spoofed number. If the phone number, which just called you, does not match some rules you get "Invalid phone number" pop up when choosing to block it.
- aembleton 10y ago
  MIUI does this. MIUI is created by Xiaomi, one of China's largest mobile phone manufacturers. It is a fork of Android. I've never installed it on a phone but have imported Xiaomi handsets that have it installed. http://en.miui.com/zt/miui8/index.html http://en.miui.com/zt/miui8/index.html
scoot 10y ago
> Every time I get a call from a number I don't recognize I do this ridiculous dance where I try to Google the number (usually on my phone) before the ringing stops. Well that's just silly. If you don't recognise the number, don't answer it. If it's someone you know, and it's important, they'll leave a message and you can call them back. If it's someone you don't know, and they leave a nuisance message, block them.
- cocotino 10y ago
  I have this checklist: * If it's a withheld/private number, I don't answer. * If it's a number I don't recognise, I don't answer. * If it's a number I recognise from work/a client, I don't answer. * If it's a number I recognise from a friend, I don't answer. * If it's a number I recognise from a direct relative, I don't answer. * If it's a number I recognise from a very direct relative and I've been called several times in the last minutes, I start pondering if I should pick it up or not. I usually do not, but ymmv
  - eitally 10y ago
    It gets trickier when you have children, especially school aged.
    - cocotino 10y ago
      I completely agree. This is a checklist for someone who isn't directly responsible for anybody. Of course if you have children, you'd be paranoid at any number-what if it's school? A teacher? The hospital? That's hairy stuff.
      - chronic81 10y ago
        How does it change anything? If it is an important call, they will leave a message. This is even more true if the call is concerning someone you are responsible for.
      - roywiggins 10y ago
rifung 10y ago
Have you tried the app TrueCaller? It basically does what you are doing manually except searching a crowdsourced database of numbers. I'm not affiliated with them in any way; I just find it useful.
- manojlds 10y ago
  +1 - I use it and it has been very very useful. This despite concerns that contacts are shared for them to build their crowd sourced data, I am totally fine with it.
  - voltagex_ 10y ago
    The thing that worries me when an app wants (all?) my contacts is: are all my contacts also happy about their number being shared? When I give my number to someone, I am aware that my number is going to end up with Facebook/Snapchat/LINE/whatever but does everyone think like this?
- kyriakos 10y ago
  thats one of the best apps I have on my phone. use it all the time. we recently had an election here and the amount of spam calls from candidate campaigners and election polls was crazy. truecaller saved me! (I also go to report the ones that fell through)
- danjc 10y ago
  TrueCaller has been great for me and I believe services like this could kill telemarketing overnight. I haven't given them access to my contacts yet though so I end up looking up numbers in the app. Loathe to give this information to yet another vendor yet back when I joined WhatsApp I didn't even consider the privacy implication. Illustrates the heightened awareness of privacy we have now.
technofiend 10y ago
It's beyond silly, it's downright stupid: Google bought GrandCentral years ago and it had this feature.
oldmanjay 10y ago
It's sort of breathtaking to think I've gone from a time when people were suspicious about the usefulness of computers to one where a phone telling you the call you're getting is probably useless is a basic feature that it's ridiculous to not have. WTG engineering!
beedogs 10y ago
> It's ridiculous that it took Google so long to implement such a basic feature on their phones. At least they've done it. I haven't heard a peep about this functionality coming to the iPhone.
- rimantas 10y ago
  Something like that appeared in iOS9.
Nullabillity 10y ago
Wouldn't it be far quicker to just answer it (and block afterwards if it turns out to be spam)?
- gbajson 10y ago
  5-20 times a day? Every day. Spam calls are very distracting and annoying.
- bluedino 10y ago
  It's a lot easier to ignore someone that you don't want to talk to by letting it just ring than it is answering it. Then they KNOW you don't want to talk to them.

by ohazi 10y ago

mszcz 10y ago

Oh, I love calls from telemarketers ;) It's a sport for me, a fun pass time. I'm trying to sell them shit before they have a chance to finish their pitch. Or I hang up on myself (hangup when I'm speaking) and see how many times they call me back (current record is at 4 before the guy figured it out). Or pretend that I don't own a phone while on a phonecall with them. Or ask them for their personal cell number so I can call during lunch and discuss this. BTW Randy Pausch gets credit for most of those.

MichaelBurge 10y ago
They usually get paid by the hour, and if you're on HN there's a decent chance your time is way more valuable than theirs. It'd be cheaper to use a service like Jolly Roger to keep them busy: http://www.jollyrogertelco.com/ http://www.jollyrogertelco.com/
- mszcz 10y ago
  Probably true. However, those calls usually last couple of minutes tops and I'm always in a good mood afterwards. To me it's more of a IRL equivalent of watching cat gifs to reset your brain every now and then ;) I don't mind them getting paid as long as I can have a good time at their expense. And hey, maybe me laughing at them will cause them to reconsider their chosen profession (but not holding my breath). EDIT: typo.
  - jacquesm 10y ago
    > And hey, maybe me laughing at them will cause them to reconsider their chosen profession (but not holding my breath). Maybe their 'chosen profession' has less in terms of freedom of choice than you think it does. There are only so many low-wage jobs available and I figure most call center operators are happy with the crappy job they've got rather than with the high moral standards one they don't or can't get.
    - mszcz 10y ago
      Well, that's one side of the argument and I get it. However, if you extend it a bit further it might mean that the inability to get a better job justifies you taking one that hurts other people - some of those telemarketers are selling useless shit, scamy subscriptions, etc. I don't fall for those but I'm not the only one receving those calls.
- lazaroclapp 10y ago
  The employee gets paid, the company paying for the spamming gets a decreased ROI, mszcz gets some amusement. Not my way of dealing with these sort of calls, but in this particular case it seems like win, win and win.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]

hiou 10y ago

Probably because it's possibly liable.

jt2190 10y ago

Why do you do so much work? Why not just ignore the call, and see if they leave a message?

pavel_lishin 10y ago
Or pick it up, listen for three seconds, and decide then?
- kinkdr 10y ago
  Honestly. The callers are breaking the social etiquette by making unsolicited calls, however if we pick up we feel obliged to be polite. Fuck that, hang up on their face.
  - pavel_lishin 10y ago
    > Fuck that, hang up on their face. What's what I'm suggesting.
    - kinkdr 10y ago
      And I couldn't agree more :)
- 01Michael10 10y ago
  Why?
  - pavel_lishin 10y ago
    Easier than listening to a 2 second voicemail.
    - 01Michael10 10y ago
      Huh? 99% of telemarketers don't leave a VM.

deathanatos 10y ago

I find Googling phone numbers to return nothing but junk sites trying to leach ad revenue off of those queries, with little in the way of actual information. I just don't answer the call. If I don't know who you are, and you can't be bothered to leave a message … why should I care? Empirically, half of upstate New York seems to think my number is the one they're looking for. Back before I stopped answering calls, I had to repeatedly tell one unknown number over SMS that this wasn't the number they were looking for. Over SMS. I hope that that number didn't have a smartphone, as my reply of "This isn't the number you're looking for." would quite probably have been right there on the screen as he typed in the next message, again to the wrong number. I actually have a few of the more common wrong numbers in my contacts list, and some of them still call regularly. (Never leaving a message.)

godzillabrennus 10y ago
I have some local area code 867-5309 numbers and the number of calls I get is insane.
- _asummers 10y ago
  Did you ask for that number or was it random?
  - MBlume 10y ago
    "numbers", so I'm guessing it wasn't random.
    - thaumasiotes 10y ago
      I very much doubt it's possible to get an 867-5309 without specifically requesting it.
    - creeble 10y ago
      You have to be over...40? https://www.amazon.com/867-5309-Jenny-Song-That-Saved/dp/1936185555 https://www.amazon.com/867-5309-Jenny-Song-That-Saved/dp/193...

iamshs 10y ago

Caller IDs can be spoofed too. Around year back, I started getting calls asking me to stop calling them, when I had never called them in the first place. Then it clicked, someone had spam called by spoofing my number. What is googling going to do in this case?

x0054 10y ago
Somehow this has happened to my parents. No clue how, but they started getting phone calls from me, calls I never made. It was just some call center in india with a credit card scam, so it was obvious that it wasn't me once they picked up.
kodis 10y ago
Even stranger, I'll occasionally get a call on my home phone which the Caller ID identifies as coming from my home phone with me as the caller -- to myself! At least it makes it easy for me to spot as a spoofed caller.

saiko-chriskun 10y ago

I just plain don't pick up unscheduled calls.

sowbug 10y ago

> It's ridiculous that it took Google so long to implement such a basic feature on their phones. Do other phone vendors do this?

Klathmon 10y ago
Yeah it's a pet peeve of mine when people call any feature a "basic" one. How is this basic? At a minimum it requires a database of spam numbers, a way to automatically add new ones, probably some way to deprecate numbers that are no longer spammy, a UI, and I'm sure some legal work to ensure they won't break any laws.
- derefr 10y ago
  Oddly, Apple already has a "database of spam numbers, a way to automatically add new ones", etc., but it only functions within iMessage. Calls from the same numbers don't get detected, and there's no option to flag callers. (You can block them, but not "report as spam.")
pandaman 10y ago
Samsung dialer on my S7 does warn about potential spammers. I still use Google dialer because Samsung just looks very shabby. Another feature, which makes me facepalm in Google dialer is inability to block a spoofed number. If the phone number, which just called you, does not match some rules you get "Invalid phone number" pop up when choosing to block it.
aembleton 10y ago
MIUI does this. MIUI is created by Xiaomi, one of China's largest mobile phone manufacturers. It is a fork of Android. I've never installed it on a phone but have imported Xiaomi handsets that have it installed. http://en.miui.com/zt/miui8/index.html http://en.miui.com/zt/miui8/index.html

scoot 10y ago

> Every time I get a call from a number I don't recognize I do this ridiculous dance where I try to Google the number (usually on my phone) before the ringing stops. Well that's just silly. If you don't recognise the number, don't answer it. If it's someone you know, and it's important, they'll leave a message and you can call them back. If it's someone you don't know, and they leave a nuisance message, block them.

cocotino 10y ago
I have this checklist: * If it's a withheld/private number, I don't answer. * If it's a number I don't recognise, I don't answer. * If it's a number I recognise from work/a client, I don't answer. * If it's a number I recognise from a friend, I don't answer. * If it's a number I recognise from a direct relative, I don't answer. * If it's a number I recognise from a very direct relative and I've been called several times in the last minutes, I start pondering if I should pick it up or not. I usually do not, but ymmv
- eitally 10y ago
  It gets trickier when you have children, especially school aged.
  - cocotino 10y ago
    I completely agree. This is a checklist for someone who isn't directly responsible for anybody. Of course if you have children, you'd be paranoid at any number-what if it's school? A teacher? The hospital? That's hairy stuff.
    - chronic81 10y ago
      How does it change anything? If it is an important call, they will leave a message. This is even more true if the call is concerning someone you are responsible for.
    - roywiggins 10y ago

rifung 10y ago

Have you tried the app TrueCaller? It basically does what you are doing manually except searching a crowdsourced database of numbers. I'm not affiliated with them in any way; I just find it useful.

manojlds 10y ago
+1 - I use it and it has been very very useful. This despite concerns that contacts are shared for them to build their crowd sourced data, I am totally fine with it.
- voltagex_ 10y ago
  The thing that worries me when an app wants (all?) my contacts is: are all my contacts also happy about their number being shared? When I give my number to someone, I am aware that my number is going to end up with Facebook/Snapchat/LINE/whatever but does everyone think like this?
kyriakos 10y ago
thats one of the best apps I have on my phone. use it all the time. we recently had an election here and the amount of spam calls from candidate campaigners and election polls was crazy. truecaller saved me! (I also go to report the ones that fell through)
danjc 10y ago
TrueCaller has been great for me and I believe services like this could kill telemarketing overnight. I haven't given them access to my contacts yet though so I end up looking up numbers in the app. Loathe to give this information to yet another vendor yet back when I joined WhatsApp I didn't even consider the privacy implication. Illustrates the heightened awareness of privacy we have now.

technofiend 10y ago

It's beyond silly, it's downright stupid: Google bought GrandCentral years ago and it had this feature.

oldmanjay 10y ago

It's sort of breathtaking to think I've gone from a time when people were suspicious about the usefulness of computers to one where a phone telling you the call you're getting is probably useless is a basic feature that it's ridiculous to not have. WTG engineering!

beedogs 10y ago

> It's ridiculous that it took Google so long to implement such a basic feature on their phones. At least they've done it. I haven't heard a peep about this functionality coming to the iPhone.

rimantas 10y ago
Something like that appeared in iOS9.

Nullabillity 10y ago

Wouldn't it be far quicker to just answer it (and block afterwards if it turns out to be spam)?

gbajson 10y ago
5-20 times a day? Every day. Spam calls are very distracting and annoying.
bluedino 10y ago
It's a lot easier to ignore someone that you don't want to talk to by letting it just ring than it is answering it. Then they KNOW you don't want to talk to them.