4 ms·

Living in the Bay Area, California: Our landline gets between 3 and 7 robocalls/day. My cell, maybe 3-4 a week. It's infuriating.

mrkrabo 9y ago
Please tell me what kind of services and products do they offer in those calls.
- immad 9y ago
  I get mostly pharmacy products and vacation deals
- rblatz 9y ago
  I get calls about buying a car warranty, I won some sort of cruise, or some one who is having trouble with their headset.
  - FussyZeus 9y ago
    Ditto on car warranties, that's a good 70% of mine.
- Baeocystin 9y ago
  Vacation scam, 'this is IRS' scam, 'update your google business account' scam, 'this is microsoft support' scam, and then ~20% of the time someone trying to sell me window blinds, security systems, or other low-value, high-margin crap. Although once I did get a phone call from Adobe, back when they had that big userinfo leak. I thanked them for the call, but said I wasn't going to do anything over the phone, they could contact me through my email address, which they did. So that's one legit one, at least. I have to leave our house fax unplugged most of the time for the same reason. It is a genuine annoyance.
  - passivepinetree 9y ago
    You have a fax system at your house and even that gets spam? I can't imagine that those are widespread enough to make that profitable for the scammers.
    - Baeocystin 9y ago
      Business inertia is a hell of a thing!
- prawn 9y ago
  In Australia, it's usually ATO (IRS-equivalent) scams. The non-robo calls are typically sub-continental SEO spammers, marketing surveys, charity drives, politicians, etc.
- scierama 9y ago
  You can see the list if you go to the FTC's Do Not Call site here: https://complaints.donotcall.gov/complaint/complaintcheck.aspx https://complaints.donotcall.gov/complaint/complaintcheck.as... Then click Continue and view the list named: "What was the call about?".
logicallee 9y ago
do you think you gave your numbers out numerous times which is in some but-for sense an ultimate source of your calls (if you had never given your number out you would ultimately not be receiving these calls?) Or do you think everyone gets that many calls per day regardless of whether they've ever given their number out?
- gnicholas 9y ago
  They just call every number. They spoof the area code and prefix to make it seem like it's a neighbor or local business calling. This tactic may work for landlines, where prefixes are similar in particular neighborhoods (at least in the US). But for cell phones, it's actually a dead giveaway for many people. This is because prefixes are less correlated to location. For example, I have only ever known one person who had the same prefix as my cell phone. So whenever I see a matching prefix on the caller ID, I know it's a spoofed robocall. But it's possible that these robocallers actually don't mind that people like me get wise to them in this way, because they'd rather only reach less tech-savvy targets, who don't know about caller ID spoofing. This is like how spammers are rumored to use well-known tropes in their messages because then the only people dumb enough to respond are "qualified leads" that are more likely to fall for scams.
- Baeocystin 9y ago
  No. Our landline is not my business line, and only family has it. My fax line is something I've given to a lot of businesses, but the # number of calls is roughly the same. My cell is also my business line, and thus freely given out, but thankfully the number of calls is less than either of our landlines.
DrScump 9y ago
Same here. I often get back to back calls with one bearing my landline prefix and followed by one to my mobile with its prefix (both numbers undoubtedly spoofed).
erinnh 9y ago
Holy hell. At that point Id just delete those phone numbers and do everything in my might to stop the calls. Maybe even block all non contact numbers and tell people to write me emails instead.
- moftz 9y ago
  I don't pickup my cell unless it's from someone I know. I get at least a couple a day and my parent's landline gets even more. I use google voice for voicemail and get zero service at work so I get notifications about having a voicemail throughout the day. Most of my voicemailbox is recordings of spammers and robocallers. Google has started identifying spammer numbers by a report service so anyone can flag a number as spam. This helps a bit but most of the calls don't show up as spammers. It's no use to delete the numbers because they will probably never be used again to call me.
- Baeocystin 9y ago
  Believe me, I hear you. If it weren't for the need to keep the copper landline for the comfort and safety of my elderly father, who I had move in with me after my mother's passing, I would have nuked all landlines years ago.
  - pavel_lishin 9y ago
    Do you mean that he likes having the landline, and would rely on it in case of emergency? fwiw, my elderly father uses a cellphone. The only time we can't reach him is when he leaves it inside to go outside, and then a landline wouldn't help him, either :P
    - Baeocystin 9y ago
      Mostly that. He also has a cell phone, but is quite deaf, so he prefers the loudness possible from a boosted land-line phone over wearing his hearing aids and using his cell.

mrkrabo 9y ago

Please tell me what kind of services and products do they offer in those calls.

immad 9y ago
I get mostly pharmacy products and vacation deals
rblatz 9y ago
I get calls about buying a car warranty, I won some sort of cruise, or some one who is having trouble with their headset.
- FussyZeus 9y ago
  Ditto on car warranties, that's a good 70% of mine.
Baeocystin 9y ago
Vacation scam, 'this is IRS' scam, 'update your google business account' scam, 'this is microsoft support' scam, and then ~20% of the time someone trying to sell me window blinds, security systems, or other low-value, high-margin crap. Although once I did get a phone call from Adobe, back when they had that big userinfo leak. I thanked them for the call, but said I wasn't going to do anything over the phone, they could contact me through my email address, which they did. So that's one legit one, at least. I have to leave our house fax unplugged most of the time for the same reason. It is a genuine annoyance.
- passivepinetree 9y ago
  You have a fax system at your house and even that gets spam? I can't imagine that those are widespread enough to make that profitable for the scammers.
  - Baeocystin 9y ago
    Business inertia is a hell of a thing!
prawn 9y ago
In Australia, it's usually ATO (IRS-equivalent) scams. The non-robo calls are typically sub-continental SEO spammers, marketing surveys, charity drives, politicians, etc.
scierama 9y ago
You can see the list if you go to the FTC's Do Not Call site here: https://complaints.donotcall.gov/complaint/complaintcheck.aspx https://complaints.donotcall.gov/complaint/complaintcheck.as... Then click Continue and view the list named: "What was the call about?".

logicallee 9y ago

do you think you gave your numbers out numerous times which is in some but-for sense an ultimate source of your calls (if you had never given your number out you would ultimately not be receiving these calls?) Or do you think everyone gets that many calls per day regardless of whether they've ever given their number out?

gnicholas 9y ago
They just call every number. They spoof the area code and prefix to make it seem like it's a neighbor or local business calling. This tactic may work for landlines, where prefixes are similar in particular neighborhoods (at least in the US). But for cell phones, it's actually a dead giveaway for many people. This is because prefixes are less correlated to location. For example, I have only ever known one person who had the same prefix as my cell phone. So whenever I see a matching prefix on the caller ID, I know it's a spoofed robocall. But it's possible that these robocallers actually don't mind that people like me get wise to them in this way, because they'd rather only reach less tech-savvy targets, who don't know about caller ID spoofing. This is like how spammers are rumored to use well-known tropes in their messages because then the only people dumb enough to respond are "qualified leads" that are more likely to fall for scams.
Baeocystin 9y ago
No. Our landline is not my business line, and only family has it. My fax line is something I've given to a lot of businesses, but the # number of calls is roughly the same. My cell is also my business line, and thus freely given out, but thankfully the number of calls is less than either of our landlines.

DrScump 9y ago

Same here. I often get back to back calls with one bearing my landline prefix and followed by one to my mobile with its prefix (both numbers undoubtedly spoofed).

erinnh 9y ago

Holy hell. At that point Id just delete those phone numbers and do everything in my might to stop the calls. Maybe even block all non contact numbers and tell people to write me emails instead.

moftz 9y ago
I don't pickup my cell unless it's from someone I know. I get at least a couple a day and my parent's landline gets even more. I use google voice for voicemail and get zero service at work so I get notifications about having a voicemail throughout the day. Most of my voicemailbox is recordings of spammers and robocallers. Google has started identifying spammer numbers by a report service so anyone can flag a number as spam. This helps a bit but most of the calls don't show up as spammers. It's no use to delete the numbers because they will probably never be used again to call me.
Baeocystin 9y ago
Believe me, I hear you. If it weren't for the need to keep the copper landline for the comfort and safety of my elderly father, who I had move in with me after my mother's passing, I would have nuked all landlines years ago.
- pavel_lishin 9y ago
  Do you mean that he likes having the landline, and would rely on it in case of emergency? fwiw, my elderly father uses a cellphone. The only time we can't reach him is when he leaves it inside to go outside, and then a landline wouldn't help him, either :P
  - Baeocystin 9y ago
    Mostly that. He also has a cell phone, but is quite deaf, so he prefers the loudness possible from a boosted land-line phone over wearing his hearing aids and using his cell.