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I can’t imagine why anyone ever answers the phone. I get at least ten robocalls every weekday. I don’t ever look at my voicemail and I haven’t answered a call i

I can’t imagine why anyone ever answers the phone. I get at least ten robocalls every weekday. I don’t ever look at my voicemail and I haven’t answered a call in ages. Edit: I know I’m not alone because CNN just released a poll with no responses from people under the age of fifty, because they couldn’t reach enough of them by phone.

chrisseaton 7y ago
Why does anyone spend the time to answer a poll for a for-profit company? I bet the person making the call is being compensated but they want the callee’s time for free?
- millstone 7y ago
  To express and represent your point of view.
  - Scoundreller 7y ago
    The surveyors may not want to represent/hear about the interests of people too bothered to do things that take time without pay (e.g. voting or vaccination, which should also be paid imo).
    - studentrob 7y ago
      That's rather conspiratorial. Not all polls are created equal. If you wonder about a poll's integrity you can read about their methods, e.g. Pew research, https://www.pewresearch.org/methods/u-s-survey-research/our-survey-methodology-in-detail/ https://www.pewresearch.org/methods/u-s-survey-research/our-...
    - thaumasiotes 7y ago
      Vaccination does pay, in kind.
- unityByFreedom 7y ago
  I guess some people enjoy sharing their opinion. Not everybody does, some people just hang up.
- icebraining 7y ago
  The main market polling company around here does pay out; usually a 5€ voucher.
- pbhjpbhj 7y ago
  The company doing the poll will often misrepresent themselves IME. "Do you have a minute to talk about your phone service, we're calling from your provider." OR "We're finding out for the government about voter preferences." That sort of thing. People thing they may have an obligation to the company. UK government do a paper-based survey of businesses for which there is a legal obligation (backed by a fine) to respond, but it appears when you first get it just like one of these scammy polling companies.
Scoundreller 7y ago
Work phones and/or being on-call. Encouraging non-PSTN calls can have huge privacy implications (e.g. using Facebook for health care provider communications). But ya; personally, I have a dedicated voicemail number that I hand out when I “must” provide a phone number.
- blurhblurh 7y ago
  What is the voicemail service you use? I am very interested in a cheap voip service that is literally just voicemail. I'd love that. Especially if it's only $1-2/mo.
godelski 7y ago
Slightly off topic (of the OP, not parent comment) Are you referring to this? [0] I was googling because I was interested. Looking at this the data seems fishy. Under total respondents they have answers for the age group, but not under any of the democratic/democratic leaning responses. So it looks like they only interviewed republicans under 50 and both groups 50+. There's some more fishy patterns like that with repubs <$50k. So it is hard to say if only young republicans answer their phones or the data set is (purposefully?) biased. [0] http://cdn.cnn.com/cnn/2019/images/03/19/rel4b.-.2020.pdf http://cdn.cnn.com/cnn/2019/images/03/19/rel4b.-.2020.pdf
- URSpider94 7y ago
  No. Read the methodology statement carefully. They have 1000 respondents to the entire poll. When they refer to the data by a stratified group, they only present it if the number of people in that group is 125 or greater. For the poll questions that specifically say. “For voters registered as Democrats or democrat-leaning independents”, the response Pool is cut down to something like 450 (the exact number is listed in the description). If they then divide that into four age groups, then it would actually be reasonable for NONE of them to exceed 125 respondents. If you look at other breakdowns in the survey, it is clear that all of the age groups and demographics are covered. Also note that polls results are almost always corrected after the fact for sampling error - so if they get a low response rate from 20-30 year olds, then they weight those responses more heavily so that they represent the expected proportion of the overall population.
gpm 7y ago
I answer the phone because people who I have to be responsive to call it. I'm currently getting a visa, if someone involved in the decision making process calls my number I better answer it. I was interviewing for a job not that long ago, when people get back to me by the phone I better answer it. When my dentist or doctor calls to schedule an appointment I need to answer it. If a family member needs to get my attention a phone call works better than text - the ringtone is more noticeable. Of course I live in Canada and my number isn't scattered everywhere on the web, I don't think I even get a robocall a week on average. But even if I lived in the states, I don't see how I could avoid the first two requiring I answer my phone sometimes, possibly the third as well but at least I'm the client there so I might be able to talk them into an alternative means of contacting me.
- dredmorbius 7y ago
  Virtually all of those will leave a message.
  - Fnoord 7y ago
    I have that disabled. Either they contact me via a more modern communication line, or I contact them when it suits me. If I need a doctor appointment, I phone my doctor (or well, his secretary).
    - dredmorbius 7y ago
      Amending prior response: unless you've specifically removed the ability of that option.
- maccard 7y ago
  I do t disagree with you that answerinf your phone can be necessary, but most of your examples are cases where you are expecting a call - except your doctor/dentist. Why are they calling you and not you calling them to make appointments? Semo-related but it's infuriating how many companies refuse to contact you by email. I'm currently remortgaging a flat, and I've told the broker repeatedly to contact me by email, and they still phone, leave a voicemail asking to be called back, and send an email saying they called.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
droithomme 7y ago
> I can’t imagine why anyone ever answers the phone. I get at least ten robocalls every weekday. I answer the phone all the time and it's always someone I know. I do not have a caller id display. Here's how I managed that. Only 4 people know my real phone number and are under orders not to add it to any digital address book. My phone number is registered to an alias. I pay for my phone using cash. My area code is in a city I've never lived in and have no connection to. I add my number to the do not call list. For generic phone number requests, such as stores and shipper that demand it, it's always 555-1212. Of course this method won't work well for people who need to give their phone number out to people they don't know. But then again if that result is simply not to answer the phone ever, why would that be better. And for those who really only ever want to hear from a half dozen or fewer trusted friends and family, this is a solution that works.
- mattkrause 7y ago
  How do you get--and keep--a job? Have friends? Make medical appointments? Order pizza?
  - probably_wrong 7y ago
    I am not the person you are replying to, but I would like to point out that my job never calls me (and if they expected me to be reachable they would give me a work phone), I keep in touch with my friends via my computer, and I order pizza online. Medical appointments are still done over the phone, though, but not always. I wouldn't go as far as to have no phone number whatsoever, but living without one doesn't seem entirely crazy to me.
    - dkersten 7y ago
      I lived without a phone number for about 9 months a few years ago. My phone was basically a WiFi device. I really enjoyed this time and am considering doing it again. I only stopped because my brother got annoyed and bought me a new SIM, but nowadays he doesn’t call me much and uses internet for voice. Even my mother uses WhatsApp for voice. Having a WiFi-only device (as opposed to a data-only one) did mean I had to plan things a bit, just like I had to do before mobile phones became such a popular thing. It wasn’t a big deal at all.
URSpider94 7y ago
If you’re talking about the CNN poll on Democratic Presidential candidates, then that’s a colossal mis-statement of the facts. They definitely did have people under 50 in the poll. There was a Facebook post making the rounds that took a single chart from the methodology statement and claimed that nobody under 50 was polled, incorrectly. I encourage you to read the full polling statement, available online, to see that’s not the case. All of that said, yes, pollsters do have to do more work to survey younger people. They have recently added cell phones to their call lists, since land line phones are going the way of the dodo.
- shereadsthenews 7y ago
  I don't think I've misrepresented the outcome of the poll at all. Even after lumping together 18-49 year old respondents, an unusually coarse cohort spanning several generations, they still didn't have enough responses to get statistical power.
  - URSpider94 7y ago
    First, I don't see any table that lumps all responses 18-49. I do see a column for <45. Second, the tables that show responses for all respondents do include values (not N/A) for all age groups, meaning that across the n=1000 poll there are > 125 respondents in each age group, meaning that at minimum 250 people out of the 1000 in the poll are under 50. The categories that do have N/A are in questions that select for only Democratic or Democratic-leaning independents who are registered to vote -- which is only 411 respondents out of the poll. And that one does have a lot of N/A's, including in the < 45 column. Having N < 125 under 45 in a sample size of 411 people is disappointing, but hardly the same as "no responses from people under 50", which is what you wrote. It also doesn't mean that those responses weren't included in the poll, only that they didn't feel confident to break them out separately.
m1sta_ 7y ago
I don't understand why the USA doesn't pass laws to address this.
- Causality1 7y ago
  "muh socialism"
- metalliqaz 7y ago
  Regulatory capture.
agotterer 7y ago
Over the past 6 months the number of robocalls to my mobile number has increased from 1 or 2 a week to at least 5+ a day. I’ve also just stopped answering numbers I don’t recognize.m, which isn’t always ideal because I miss legitimate calls now. I actually just send it immediately to voicemail. Most of the time my voicemail box is full because it’s filled with junk I don’t bother clearing out. Ive contemplated changing my number. But I imagine that won’t actually help. Is this just the new reality? Are there any solutions?
- sethammons 7y ago
  I've moved to a new area code and kept my old number. Aside from known contacts, if I get a call from my phone's area code, I know it is not legit. If I get a call from my new area code, I know it has to be a local someone and I should answer it. Zero accepted robo calls in 6mo.
  - jerf 7y ago
    I've also done the "moved out of the area code of my number 15 years ago" [1], but someone's gotten smarter lately. They've hooked up to some sort of information source and I'm getting a lot more robo calls from my real area code lately. Since we have so many dozens of thousands of our best and brightest thinking day in and day out about how to violate our privacy, more dozens of thousands figuring out how to monetize that data, and so many dozens of our best and brightest thinking about how to secure that data, I can't even begin to guess what they've got a hold of or what it is, just that it's enough to start spamming me with faked calls that look a lot more real. I've literally noticed this just in the last couple of weeks; at least for me, it's a relatively recent development. YMMV. [1]: https://xkcd.com/1129/ https://xkcd.com/1129/
KozmoNau7 7y ago
I only answer the phone if the call is from someone on my contact list. My phone is in Do Not Disturb mode 100% of the time, with only alarms and priority calls whitelisted, so I know that if a call comes through, it's probably important. Everyone else can send a message or record a voicemail. I'll call or write back when I feel like it. I have also taken the step of disabling all notifications except for direct messages to me. Those get to pop an icon in the notification bar, but no sound nor vibration alerts. I'll see the message whenever I decide to check my phone.
- ytjohn 7y ago
  I'm setup pretty much the same way. I actually have a home phone (in addition to a cell phone). We used to get robocalls all the time, so it was really just something that would ring at annoying times till the answering machine picked up. We just replaced it with a new phone that has call blocking. Callers in your caller id are allowed to ring through. Everyone else has to say a name and press a button before they can ring through. While I'm sure some robocallers can press buttons, none of ours do. We put family phone numbers and some of the medical/vet office numbers in. Our phone has been blissfully quiet since.
welly 7y ago
I don't understand why young (I'm making an assumption here) people don't like making or receiving voice calls. I'd far rather talk to someone than text them. Texting requires far more effort and takes far more time.
- whatshisface 7y ago
  >Texting requires far more effort and takes far more time. A reasonable theory would be that if your typing skills are good enough, the opposite is true.
  - asark 7y ago
    Especially if you're "texting" from a computer (iMessage linked to a phone, for example)
  - welly 7y ago
    It's less the speed of typing but the continual back and forth of texting and the delay between messages. You send a message, you get a reply - sometimes later on in the day and you don't want to be that guy by hassling the recipient of your text messages by keep nudging them. Example, today on the train I texted a mate to see if he was about as we'd previously discussed meeting up today. I was going to get off the train at a particular stop if I was going to see him but otherwise would have carried on. I texted him and didn't get a reply until just before I was going to get off the train, which was about 40 minutes later. If I'd just given him a phone call, I'd have known immediately. It was all fine in the end but if I hadn't received his text before the first stop, I'd have continued on my way assuming he was busy. But because now the default method of communication is text messaging, I feel I can't make a phone call any more.
  - fjsolwmv 7y ago
    Those are rare skills. The optimum is texting via voice recog
- dredmorbius 7y ago
  Depends on the correspondent, but many messages can be resolved quickly via text, while phone conversations tend to get more easily waylaid. People who prefer to create drama or interminable conversations can and do do so via any medium.
thefounder 7y ago
What's your phone for if not to answer when people call you?
- tstrimple 7y ago
  The Internet and occasionally texting.
- scarecrowbob 7y ago
  Mostly I use it as a network connection for the Messages app on my computer, and as a mobile computing platform/camera/text message system. Occasionally I use it for a general network connection when I don't have wifi. I call my parents every once in a while, though. It's a nice to have feature.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- kljdsjiodjaof 7y ago
  - taking and sharing photos - to get directions - to send and receive text messages - to listen to music and media - voicemail and lastly - to make and receive phone calls agreed upon in advance, usually text
- TeMPOraL 7y ago
  To call other people? Calls I make are split ~50/50 between personal, to people who know me and have my number, and business, when I either want to buy something or resolve some issue. Calls I receive are split 40/60 between personal and spam. And I'm in Europe. In the US, from what I hear, that would be closer to 10/90. There's a huge asymmetry in phone use. Marketers and scammers make the phone network near-unusable to regular people, by ensuring most of the calls they receive are unwanted.
  - martin_a 7y ago
    Where in Europe are you? I'm in Germany and I'd say I get one call a month from somebody who wants to do a survey or something like that. And I also might get one spam SMS per month which I report to the "Bundesnetzagentur", which will then take care of that as this is prohibited in Germany.
tluyben2 7y ago
You are not alone; people can call me via other voice services. I need a mobile number for mobile banking but otherwise I would have a data sim only.
Negitivefrags 7y ago
I don't understand why the phone companies don't do more prevent this kind of thing in the USA. In New Zealand, I have had periods where spam phone calls have been pretty bad for me. 2 or 3 a day for a week or so, and that was annoying. But they always seem to stop. The last spam call I got was long enough ago that it doesn't show up in my iphones call history. Certainly several months ago. Can't the phone companies look at calls the same way email providers do and use all the information they have at their disposal to filter out the spam?
- swozey 7y ago
  A bunch of carriers like tmobile and att can filter spam at their network. I was getting 5+ a day so I'm testing tmobiles name ID. But it's an extra $4/month when it should be included. Most people just use hiya and all of the apps that community source the blocking. Tbh my experience is probably better with those.
  - raverbashing 7y ago
    It's part of being completely incompetent at their job then charging people for the "convenience" It's the same BS with credit scores/credit freeze
    - _jal 7y ago
      This appears to be the new-style of "American innovation". You junk something up, break it, or otherwise make things worse and then take your cut out of restoring something resembling the status quo. Living in a gangster's paradise...
goodcanadian 7y ago
Put your number on the National do not call registry. It doesn't stop all calls, but in my experience, it greatly reduces them.
- mbreese 7y ago
  This isn’t the case anymore. There is currently no real enforcement mechanism in place for the registry, so even a number on the registry will get many robo calls a day now.
- dredmorbius 7y ago
  Probably doesn't hurt. By most reports, it helps little.
- ceejayoz 7y ago
  This works well for good actors, but it’s a nicely packaged list of active numbers for the bad ones.
adam12 7y ago
Is that the poll that puts Biden at such a huge lead?
pbhjpbhj 7y ago
Ah man, I only normally answer at the point someone starts talking to the answerphone and I recognise their voice - people we know are aware of that and so can say who they are and we'll pick up. I had call after call after call from this one number, over about 3 weeks. Eventually, after I was complaining about it to my wife the phone went and it was the same number so I picked up ... it was a domain registrar asking "are you happy, do you need any help", that was it, just a lousy marketing call (probably because I basketed a domain with them and then bought it elsewhere). What an absolute waste of time.
EADGBE 7y ago
> get at least ten robocalls every weekday I always find it interesting how these almost cease each weekend day. Do scammers' charge more to answer a phone on a weekend?
Consultant32452 7y ago
Do you have any guesses as to why you've been chosen? I can't remember the last robocall I got. I'm in my late 30s, have a cell phone only, which is on the do not call registry. The only times I get harassed are when I update my resume on whatever job site. Then for a few weeks/months I get what I consider too many calls from recruiters. I wonder if we have different purchase histories or something that has resulted in this very different outcome.
- humblebee 7y ago
  I also have a similar experience to the OP. However, I do not get 10 calls a day. It's generally 1-3 during most weekdays but not all. I use to not travel much, and any traveling I did was pretty basic flight + hotel. No fancy vacations or anything. A bit over a year ago I booked a trip to a resort in Cancun through a travel agency in Florida. None stop spam since. I noticed a massive increase the amount of email spam I got and started to received a large number of phone calls. I can't say for certain that was the cause as it seems spam phone calls have been heavily increasing over the last few years, but it's the only thing I can point to as an out of the ordinary change.
  - Consultant32452 7y ago
    That really blows, I'm sorry that happened to you and op. This kind of frequency is tantamount to harassment.
mcv 7y ago
Robocalls seem to be mostly an American problem. I live in Netherland, and I don't think I've ever had a robocall. Marketers, salespeople, pollsters, salespeople pretending to be pollsters, yes, all of those, but all of them real people at least. Most of the spam calls are from energy companies selling energy to small businesses, because I'm registered as a business. Maybe I should get a separate phone number that goes straight to voicemail for my CoC registration. But other than that, our do-not-call regulation seems to be working quite well. Maybe the US should copy it.

chrisseaton 7y ago

Why does anyone spend the time to answer a poll for a for-profit company? I bet the person making the call is being compensated but they want the callee’s time for free?

millstone 7y ago
To express and represent your point of view.
- Scoundreller 7y ago
  The surveyors may not want to represent/hear about the interests of people too bothered to do things that take time without pay (e.g. voting or vaccination, which should also be paid imo).
  - studentrob 7y ago
    That's rather conspiratorial. Not all polls are created equal. If you wonder about a poll's integrity you can read about their methods, e.g. Pew research, https://www.pewresearch.org/methods/u-s-survey-research/our-survey-methodology-in-detail/ https://www.pewresearch.org/methods/u-s-survey-research/our-...
  - thaumasiotes 7y ago
    Vaccination does pay, in kind.
unityByFreedom 7y ago
I guess some people enjoy sharing their opinion. Not everybody does, some people just hang up.
icebraining 7y ago
The main market polling company around here does pay out; usually a 5€ voucher.
pbhjpbhj 7y ago
The company doing the poll will often misrepresent themselves IME. "Do you have a minute to talk about your phone service, we're calling from your provider." OR "We're finding out for the government about voter preferences." That sort of thing. People thing they may have an obligation to the company. UK government do a paper-based survey of businesses for which there is a legal obligation (backed by a fine) to respond, but it appears when you first get it just like one of these scammy polling companies.

Scoundreller 7y ago

Work phones and/or being on-call. Encouraging non-PSTN calls can have huge privacy implications (e.g. using Facebook for health care provider communications). But ya; personally, I have a dedicated voicemail number that I hand out when I “must” provide a phone number.

blurhblurh 7y ago
What is the voicemail service you use? I am very interested in a cheap voip service that is literally just voicemail. I'd love that. Especially if it's only $1-2/mo.

godelski 7y ago

Slightly off topic (of the OP, not parent comment) Are you referring to this? [0] I was googling because I was interested. Looking at this the data seems fishy. Under total respondents they have answers for the age group, but not under any of the democratic/democratic leaning responses. So it looks like they only interviewed republicans under 50 and both groups 50+. There's some more fishy patterns like that with repubs <$50k. So it is hard to say if only young republicans answer their phones or the data set is (purposefully?) biased. [0] http://cdn.cnn.com/cnn/2019/images/03/19/rel4b.-.2020.pdf http://cdn.cnn.com/cnn/2019/images/03/19/rel4b.-.2020.pdf

URSpider94 7y ago
No. Read the methodology statement carefully. They have 1000 respondents to the entire poll. When they refer to the data by a stratified group, they only present it if the number of people in that group is 125 or greater. For the poll questions that specifically say. “For voters registered as Democrats or democrat-leaning independents”, the response Pool is cut down to something like 450 (the exact number is listed in the description). If they then divide that into four age groups, then it would actually be reasonable for NONE of them to exceed 125 respondents. If you look at other breakdowns in the survey, it is clear that all of the age groups and demographics are covered. Also note that polls results are almost always corrected after the fact for sampling error - so if they get a low response rate from 20-30 year olds, then they weight those responses more heavily so that they represent the expected proportion of the overall population.

gpm 7y ago

I answer the phone because people who I have to be responsive to call it. I'm currently getting a visa, if someone involved in the decision making process calls my number I better answer it. I was interviewing for a job not that long ago, when people get back to me by the phone I better answer it. When my dentist or doctor calls to schedule an appointment I need to answer it. If a family member needs to get my attention a phone call works better than text - the ringtone is more noticeable. Of course I live in Canada and my number isn't scattered everywhere on the web, I don't think I even get a robocall a week on average. But even if I lived in the states, I don't see how I could avoid the first two requiring I answer my phone sometimes, possibly the third as well but at least I'm the client there so I might be able to talk them into an alternative means of contacting me.

dredmorbius 7y ago
Virtually all of those will leave a message.
- Fnoord 7y ago
  I have that disabled. Either they contact me via a more modern communication line, or I contact them when it suits me. If I need a doctor appointment, I phone my doctor (or well, his secretary).
  - dredmorbius 7y ago
    Amending prior response: unless you've specifically removed the ability of that option.
maccard 7y ago
I do t disagree with you that answerinf your phone can be necessary, but most of your examples are cases where you are expecting a call - except your doctor/dentist. Why are they calling you and not you calling them to make appointments? Semo-related but it's infuriating how many companies refuse to contact you by email. I'm currently remortgaging a flat, and I've told the broker repeatedly to contact me by email, and they still phone, leave a voicemail asking to be called back, and send an email saying they called.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

droithomme 7y ago

> I can’t imagine why anyone ever answers the phone. I get at least ten robocalls every weekday. I answer the phone all the time and it's always someone I know. I do not have a caller id display. Here's how I managed that. Only 4 people know my real phone number and are under orders not to add it to any digital address book. My phone number is registered to an alias. I pay for my phone using cash. My area code is in a city I've never lived in and have no connection to. I add my number to the do not call list. For generic phone number requests, such as stores and shipper that demand it, it's always 555-1212. Of course this method won't work well for people who need to give their phone number out to people they don't know. But then again if that result is simply not to answer the phone ever, why would that be better. And for those who really only ever want to hear from a half dozen or fewer trusted friends and family, this is a solution that works.

mattkrause 7y ago
How do you get--and keep--a job? Have friends? Make medical appointments? Order pizza?
- probably_wrong 7y ago
  I am not the person you are replying to, but I would like to point out that my job never calls me (and if they expected me to be reachable they would give me a work phone), I keep in touch with my friends via my computer, and I order pizza online. Medical appointments are still done over the phone, though, but not always. I wouldn't go as far as to have no phone number whatsoever, but living without one doesn't seem entirely crazy to me.
  - dkersten 7y ago
    I lived without a phone number for about 9 months a few years ago. My phone was basically a WiFi device. I really enjoyed this time and am considering doing it again. I only stopped because my brother got annoyed and bought me a new SIM, but nowadays he doesn’t call me much and uses internet for voice. Even my mother uses WhatsApp for voice. Having a WiFi-only device (as opposed to a data-only one) did mean I had to plan things a bit, just like I had to do before mobile phones became such a popular thing. It wasn’t a big deal at all.

URSpider94 7y ago

If you’re talking about the CNN poll on Democratic Presidential candidates, then that’s a colossal mis-statement of the facts. They definitely did have people under 50 in the poll. There was a Facebook post making the rounds that took a single chart from the methodology statement and claimed that nobody under 50 was polled, incorrectly. I encourage you to read the full polling statement, available online, to see that’s not the case. All of that said, yes, pollsters do have to do more work to survey younger people. They have recently added cell phones to their call lists, since land line phones are going the way of the dodo.

shereadsthenews 7y ago
I don't think I've misrepresented the outcome of the poll at all. Even after lumping together 18-49 year old respondents, an unusually coarse cohort spanning several generations, they still didn't have enough responses to get statistical power.
- URSpider94 7y ago
  First, I don't see any table that lumps all responses 18-49. I do see a column for <45. Second, the tables that show responses for all respondents do include values (not N/A) for all age groups, meaning that across the n=1000 poll there are > 125 respondents in each age group, meaning that at minimum 250 people out of the 1000 in the poll are under 50. The categories that do have N/A are in questions that select for only Democratic or Democratic-leaning independents who are registered to vote -- which is only 411 respondents out of the poll. And that one does have a lot of N/A's, including in the < 45 column. Having N < 125 under 45 in a sample size of 411 people is disappointing, but hardly the same as "no responses from people under 50", which is what you wrote. It also doesn't mean that those responses weren't included in the poll, only that they didn't feel confident to break them out separately.

m1sta_ 7y ago

I don't understand why the USA doesn't pass laws to address this.

Causality1 7y ago
"muh socialism"
metalliqaz 7y ago
Regulatory capture.

agotterer 7y ago

Over the past 6 months the number of robocalls to my mobile number has increased from 1 or 2 a week to at least 5+ a day. I’ve also just stopped answering numbers I don’t recognize.m, which isn’t always ideal because I miss legitimate calls now. I actually just send it immediately to voicemail. Most of the time my voicemail box is full because it’s filled with junk I don’t bother clearing out. Ive contemplated changing my number. But I imagine that won’t actually help. Is this just the new reality? Are there any solutions?

sethammons 7y ago
I've moved to a new area code and kept my old number. Aside from known contacts, if I get a call from my phone's area code, I know it is not legit. If I get a call from my new area code, I know it has to be a local someone and I should answer it. Zero accepted robo calls in 6mo.
- jerf 7y ago
  I've also done the "moved out of the area code of my number 15 years ago" [1], but someone's gotten smarter lately. They've hooked up to some sort of information source and I'm getting a lot more robo calls from my real area code lately. Since we have so many dozens of thousands of our best and brightest thinking day in and day out about how to violate our privacy, more dozens of thousands figuring out how to monetize that data, and so many dozens of our best and brightest thinking about how to secure that data, I can't even begin to guess what they've got a hold of or what it is, just that it's enough to start spamming me with faked calls that look a lot more real. I've literally noticed this just in the last couple of weeks; at least for me, it's a relatively recent development. YMMV. [1]: https://xkcd.com/1129/ https://xkcd.com/1129/

KozmoNau7 7y ago

I only answer the phone if the call is from someone on my contact list. My phone is in Do Not Disturb mode 100% of the time, with only alarms and priority calls whitelisted, so I know that if a call comes through, it's probably important. Everyone else can send a message or record a voicemail. I'll call or write back when I feel like it. I have also taken the step of disabling all notifications except for direct messages to me. Those get to pop an icon in the notification bar, but no sound nor vibration alerts. I'll see the message whenever I decide to check my phone.

ytjohn 7y ago
I'm setup pretty much the same way. I actually have a home phone (in addition to a cell phone). We used to get robocalls all the time, so it was really just something that would ring at annoying times till the answering machine picked up. We just replaced it with a new phone that has call blocking. Callers in your caller id are allowed to ring through. Everyone else has to say a name and press a button before they can ring through. While I'm sure some robocallers can press buttons, none of ours do. We put family phone numbers and some of the medical/vet office numbers in. Our phone has been blissfully quiet since.

welly 7y ago

I don't understand why young (I'm making an assumption here) people don't like making or receiving voice calls. I'd far rather talk to someone than text them. Texting requires far more effort and takes far more time.

whatshisface 7y ago
>Texting requires far more effort and takes far more time. A reasonable theory would be that if your typing skills are good enough, the opposite is true.
- asark 7y ago
  Especially if you're "texting" from a computer (iMessage linked to a phone, for example)
- welly 7y ago
  It's less the speed of typing but the continual back and forth of texting and the delay between messages. You send a message, you get a reply - sometimes later on in the day and you don't want to be that guy by hassling the recipient of your text messages by keep nudging them. Example, today on the train I texted a mate to see if he was about as we'd previously discussed meeting up today. I was going to get off the train at a particular stop if I was going to see him but otherwise would have carried on. I texted him and didn't get a reply until just before I was going to get off the train, which was about 40 minutes later. If I'd just given him a phone call, I'd have known immediately. It was all fine in the end but if I hadn't received his text before the first stop, I'd have continued on my way assuming he was busy. But because now the default method of communication is text messaging, I feel I can't make a phone call any more.
- fjsolwmv 7y ago
  Those are rare skills. The optimum is texting via voice recog
dredmorbius 7y ago
Depends on the correspondent, but many messages can be resolved quickly via text, while phone conversations tend to get more easily waylaid. People who prefer to create drama or interminable conversations can and do do so via any medium.

thefounder 7y ago

What's your phone for if not to answer when people call you?

tstrimple 7y ago
The Internet and occasionally texting.
scarecrowbob 7y ago
Mostly I use it as a network connection for the Messages app on my computer, and as a mobile computing platform/camera/text message system. Occasionally I use it for a general network connection when I don't have wifi. I call my parents every once in a while, though. It's a nice to have feature.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
kljdsjiodjaof 7y ago
- taking and sharing photos - to get directions - to send and receive text messages - to listen to music and media - voicemail and lastly - to make and receive phone calls agreed upon in advance, usually text
TeMPOraL 7y ago
To call other people? Calls I make are split ~50/50 between personal, to people who know me and have my number, and business, when I either want to buy something or resolve some issue. Calls I receive are split 40/60 between personal and spam. And I'm in Europe. In the US, from what I hear, that would be closer to 10/90. There's a huge asymmetry in phone use. Marketers and scammers make the phone network near-unusable to regular people, by ensuring most of the calls they receive are unwanted.
- martin_a 7y ago
  Where in Europe are you? I'm in Germany and I'd say I get one call a month from somebody who wants to do a survey or something like that. And I also might get one spam SMS per month which I report to the "Bundesnetzagentur", which will then take care of that as this is prohibited in Germany.

tluyben2 7y ago

You are not alone; people can call me via other voice services. I need a mobile number for mobile banking but otherwise I would have a data sim only.

Negitivefrags 7y ago

I don't understand why the phone companies don't do more prevent this kind of thing in the USA. In New Zealand, I have had periods where spam phone calls have been pretty bad for me. 2 or 3 a day for a week or so, and that was annoying. But they always seem to stop. The last spam call I got was long enough ago that it doesn't show up in my iphones call history. Certainly several months ago. Can't the phone companies look at calls the same way email providers do and use all the information they have at their disposal to filter out the spam?

swozey 7y ago
A bunch of carriers like tmobile and att can filter spam at their network. I was getting 5+ a day so I'm testing tmobiles name ID. But it's an extra $4/month when it should be included. Most people just use hiya and all of the apps that community source the blocking. Tbh my experience is probably better with those.
- raverbashing 7y ago
  It's part of being completely incompetent at their job then charging people for the "convenience" It's the same BS with credit scores/credit freeze
  - _jal 7y ago
    This appears to be the new-style of "American innovation". You junk something up, break it, or otherwise make things worse and then take your cut out of restoring something resembling the status quo. Living in a gangster's paradise...

goodcanadian 7y ago

Put your number on the National do not call registry. It doesn't stop all calls, but in my experience, it greatly reduces them.

mbreese 7y ago
This isn’t the case anymore. There is currently no real enforcement mechanism in place for the registry, so even a number on the registry will get many robo calls a day now.
dredmorbius 7y ago
Probably doesn't hurt. By most reports, it helps little.
ceejayoz 7y ago
This works well for good actors, but it’s a nicely packaged list of active numbers for the bad ones.

adam12 7y ago

Is that the poll that puts Biden at such a huge lead?

pbhjpbhj 7y ago

Ah man, I only normally answer at the point someone starts talking to the answerphone and I recognise their voice - people we know are aware of that and so can say who they are and we'll pick up. I had call after call after call from this one number, over about 3 weeks. Eventually, after I was complaining about it to my wife the phone went and it was the same number so I picked up ... it was a domain registrar asking "are you happy, do you need any help", that was it, just a lousy marketing call (probably because I basketed a domain with them and then bought it elsewhere). What an absolute waste of time.

EADGBE 7y ago

> get at least ten robocalls every weekday I always find it interesting how these almost cease each weekend day. Do scammers' charge more to answer a phone on a weekend?

Consultant32452 7y ago

Do you have any guesses as to why you've been chosen? I can't remember the last robocall I got. I'm in my late 30s, have a cell phone only, which is on the do not call registry. The only times I get harassed are when I update my resume on whatever job site. Then for a few weeks/months I get what I consider too many calls from recruiters. I wonder if we have different purchase histories or something that has resulted in this very different outcome.

humblebee 7y ago
I also have a similar experience to the OP. However, I do not get 10 calls a day. It's generally 1-3 during most weekdays but not all. I use to not travel much, and any traveling I did was pretty basic flight + hotel. No fancy vacations or anything. A bit over a year ago I booked a trip to a resort in Cancun through a travel agency in Florida. None stop spam since. I noticed a massive increase the amount of email spam I got and started to received a large number of phone calls. I can't say for certain that was the cause as it seems spam phone calls have been heavily increasing over the last few years, but it's the only thing I can point to as an out of the ordinary change.
- Consultant32452 7y ago
  That really blows, I'm sorry that happened to you and op. This kind of frequency is tantamount to harassment.

mcv 7y ago

Robocalls seem to be mostly an American problem. I live in Netherland, and I don't think I've ever had a robocall. Marketers, salespeople, pollsters, salespeople pretending to be pollsters, yes, all of those, but all of them real people at least. Most of the spam calls are from energy companies selling energy to small businesses, because I'm registered as a business. Maybe I should get a separate phone number that goes straight to voicemail for my CoC registration. But other than that, our do-not-call regulation seems to be working quite well. Maybe the US should copy it.