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I've had them curse and scream at me for wasting their time. One time after a few minutes on a call he asked me what I saw on the screen and I just said "My wa

I've had them curse and scream at me for wasting their time. One time after a few minutes on a call he asked me what I saw on the screen and I just said "My wallpaper, with the word Ubuntu across the back" and he started shouting "fucking kill yourself" and hung up!

ceejayoz 10y ago
I'd love to do this, but they have my phone number. I really don't want to have to get a new one if they get pissed enough to make it unusable.
- ikeboy 10y ago
  They have little incentive to bother you once it's clear you aren't falling for it. The more of their time you waste, the more likely you'll get to some permanent blacklist which is good.
  - jeena 10y ago
    You would think so, and that was what I was trying to do, to get on some black list, but less then a week later they called me again, this time a woman called, but I didn't have the time to redo the whole thing again.
    - ikeboy 10y ago
      They might not put you on a blacklist, but they definitely won't single you out to waste more of their own time. Also, it might be a different company, I imagine competition is fierce.
  - ceejayoz 10y ago
    The company's not going to bother me, but it just takes one stalkery-minded person to start a personal vendetta. As someone with a unique name and a variety of Googlable data, I try to be fairly careful about who I piss off.
    - sqeaky 10y ago
      Let him have his vendetta. What is someone in India who is so poor he needs to work on the phones for one of these scammers going to do? It would take quite a while to save up for a plane ticket, and they would be risking their job if they abused their access to the phone system. If they somehow do own that scam business, then anything they do risks their profit margin.
      - ceejayoz 10y ago
        Really not hard to imagine how someone half the world away could make life miserable for someone - SWATting, bomb threats to kids' schools, harassing phone calls. All already happen regularly.
        sqeaky 10y ago
        I suppose you are right in some extreme sense and technical sense. I would be opening myself up to those repurcussions, but we are all open to them all the time and I would like to think the FBI or whatever SWAT team would send an officer over for a chat after getting an anonymous call from India, instead of just busting a door down. The foolishness of such moves is why they are newsworthy and many things must fail to make then happen. Perhaps this is why the wikipedia list[1] of them numbers 15 and many several federal charges against the person. These are all crimes that open up that business to risk and legal repercussion. The last thing a scam business wants is an international incident drawing attention to them. I almost welcome if it means the long term shutdown of those parasites. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swatting#Notable_cases https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swatting#Notable_cases
        ceejayoz 10y ago
        "Notable victims" doesn't mean "no other victims". Among other things, some police departments are attempting to reduce the incidence of them by not publicizing them. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/swatting-lapd-to-keep-quiet-about-prank-911-call-cases/ http://www.cbsnews.com/news/swatting-lapd-to-keep-quiet-abou... These don't appear as "anonymous calls from India". Just like the spam calls, the caller IDs are spoofed to appear local.
- nommm-nommm 10y ago
  Tell them you aren't at the computer right now so you need a number to call them back on. Call them back from a burner phone/Skype.
- user_rob 10y ago
  You can use last number barring to block their calls. My best attempt at wasting their time was 28 minutes - normally would not bother but I was ill and needed something to distract me.
  - ceejayoz 10y ago
    They spoof caller ID data. I rarely if ever receive a same-number spam call. If they wanted to make my phone number unusable, they could.
    - neeleshs 10y ago
      Android nowadays marks calls as "suspected spam", worked great. In general, if it's important enough, the caller leaves a message. Otherwise, it's not important and I don't care about it.
      - ceejayoz 10y ago
        That's great, and iOS now has a similar feature. It has zero effectiveness if someone decides to send a hundred thousand spoofed VoIP calls at you because you lost them their spammer/malware job by stringing them along.
        quicklyfrozen 10y ago
        There's no way for them to do that for free -- VoIP calls to PSTN still cost money.
ssharp 10y ago
I've only answered the phone once with these scammers. I told them I was using a Mac and after confirming three times that it was a Mac, he said "you're a liar!" and hung up.
- pawadu 10y ago
  Just between you and me, off the record, no questions ask, no purchase required whatsoever... Were you really using a mac?
  - ssharp 10y ago
    It's half true. I have a Mac laptop and Windows desktop.
M_Grey 10y ago
Same here... it was my cue to laugh and hang up.

ceejayoz 10y ago

I'd love to do this, but they have my phone number. I really don't want to have to get a new one if they get pissed enough to make it unusable.

ikeboy 10y ago
They have little incentive to bother you once it's clear you aren't falling for it. The more of their time you waste, the more likely you'll get to some permanent blacklist which is good.
- jeena 10y ago
  You would think so, and that was what I was trying to do, to get on some black list, but less then a week later they called me again, this time a woman called, but I didn't have the time to redo the whole thing again.
  - ikeboy 10y ago
    They might not put you on a blacklist, but they definitely won't single you out to waste more of their own time. Also, it might be a different company, I imagine competition is fierce.
- ceejayoz 10y ago
  The company's not going to bother me, but it just takes one stalkery-minded person to start a personal vendetta. As someone with a unique name and a variety of Googlable data, I try to be fairly careful about who I piss off.
  - sqeaky 10y ago
    Let him have his vendetta. What is someone in India who is so poor he needs to work on the phones for one of these scammers going to do? It would take quite a while to save up for a plane ticket, and they would be risking their job if they abused their access to the phone system. If they somehow do own that scam business, then anything they do risks their profit margin.
    - ceejayoz 10y ago
      Really not hard to imagine how someone half the world away could make life miserable for someone - SWATting, bomb threats to kids' schools, harassing phone calls. All already happen regularly.
      - sqeaky 10y ago
        I suppose you are right in some extreme sense and technical sense. I would be opening myself up to those repurcussions, but we are all open to them all the time and I would like to think the FBI or whatever SWAT team would send an officer over for a chat after getting an anonymous call from India, instead of just busting a door down. The foolishness of such moves is why they are newsworthy and many things must fail to make then happen. Perhaps this is why the wikipedia list[1] of them numbers 15 and many several federal charges against the person. These are all crimes that open up that business to risk and legal repercussion. The last thing a scam business wants is an international incident drawing attention to them. I almost welcome if it means the long term shutdown of those parasites. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swatting#Notable_cases https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swatting#Notable_cases
        ceejayoz 10y ago
        "Notable victims" doesn't mean "no other victims". Among other things, some police departments are attempting to reduce the incidence of them by not publicizing them. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/swatting-lapd-to-keep-quiet-about-prank-911-call-cases/ http://www.cbsnews.com/news/swatting-lapd-to-keep-quiet-abou... These don't appear as "anonymous calls from India". Just like the spam calls, the caller IDs are spoofed to appear local.
nommm-nommm 10y ago
Tell them you aren't at the computer right now so you need a number to call them back on. Call them back from a burner phone/Skype.
user_rob 10y ago
You can use last number barring to block their calls. My best attempt at wasting their time was 28 minutes - normally would not bother but I was ill and needed something to distract me.
- ceejayoz 10y ago
  They spoof caller ID data. I rarely if ever receive a same-number spam call. If they wanted to make my phone number unusable, they could.
  - neeleshs 10y ago
    Android nowadays marks calls as "suspected spam", worked great. In general, if it's important enough, the caller leaves a message. Otherwise, it's not important and I don't care about it.
    - ceejayoz 10y ago
      That's great, and iOS now has a similar feature. It has zero effectiveness if someone decides to send a hundred thousand spoofed VoIP calls at you because you lost them their spammer/malware job by stringing them along.
      - quicklyfrozen 10y ago
        There's no way for them to do that for free -- VoIP calls to PSTN still cost money.

ssharp 10y ago

I've only answered the phone once with these scammers. I told them I was using a Mac and after confirming three times that it was a Mac, he said "you're a liar!" and hung up.

pawadu 10y ago
Just between you and me, off the record, no questions ask, no purchase required whatsoever... Were you really using a mac?
- ssharp 10y ago
  It's half true. I have a Mac laptop and Windows desktop.

M_Grey 10y ago

Same here... it was my cue to laugh and hang up.