5 ms·

I look forward to a future when I can answer my phone when it rings.

gambiting 7y ago
It seems to me like such a uniquely American problem for some reason. I've gotten maybe a single spam call in my life in the UK, most people I asked also say they either never got one or got very few. But you go on HN and it seems like people get a deluge of spam calls all the time.
- codegeek 7y ago
  It is a major problem in America for the past 4-5 years. It wasn't this bad before then but nowadays, you get like 2-3 spam calls a day at the minimum. The worst part is that the spammers use your local area code and sometimes even matching up to the first 6 digits which creates more doubt if it is coming from someone local or not. Absolutely hate this. I don't ever pick up an unknown number anymore. If is it really important/urgent, they will leave a voicemail and I check that immediately to ensure it was not a genuine/emergency call.
  - jschwartzi 7y ago
    The best part of having an area code from when I was a kid is that if someone calls me from that area code I immediately know it's spam.
- MarioMan 7y ago
  I have to wonder why. I would expect that the technology and mitigations are fundamentally the same. Perhaps the difference is cultural.
  - metaphor 7y ago
    Occam's razor would appear to suggest otherwise. US population is ~5x greater than the UK, while UK GDP per capita is less than the US. More generally, the per capita economic posture of the US is strong compared to the top 10 most populous countries in the world. If you were an opportunist robocalling scammer operating on a purely probabilistic model, the UK would be a pragmatically irrelevant target. The situation in the US isn't helped by regulatory capture either.
    - frosted-flakes 7y ago
      Sounds similar to the reason MacOS has much less malicious software than Windows.
- reaperducer 7y ago
  It seems to me like such a uniquely American problem Only if by "uniquely American" you mean also British: https://www.verdict.co.uk/robocalls-malicious/ https://www.verdict.co.uk/robocalls-malicious/ And Canadian: https://globalnews.ca/news/6136318/canada-telecom-robocalls-solution/ https://globalnews.ca/news/6136318/canada-telecom-robocalls-... And German: https://hiya.com/blog/2017/12/01/one-ring-scam-makes-way-to-germany/ https://hiya.com/blog/2017/12/01/one-ring-scam-makes-way-to-... And any other high-value target. No matter the scam, scammers go where the money and the people are.
  - Tenoke 7y ago
    I've lived, worked and have numbers in the UĶ and Germany and the main spam I've had has been from LinkedIn. Robocalls happen maybe 10 times total per year for me in Germany, maybe a bit more in the UK and at least on a mobile number. Still annoying but hardly a dont-answer-phonecalls kind of thing.
- laegooose 7y ago
  I'm getting multiple spam calls per day in Russia
- tbyehl 7y ago
  Terminating a call in the US can be dramatically cheaper than the rest of the western world.

It seems to me like such a uniquely American problem for some reason. I've gotten maybe a single spam call in my life in the UK, most people I asked also say they either never got one or got very few. But you go on HN and it seems like people get a deluge of spam calls all the time.

codegeek 7y ago
It is a major problem in America for the past 4-5 years. It wasn't this bad before then but nowadays, you get like 2-3 spam calls a day at the minimum. The worst part is that the spammers use your local area code and sometimes even matching up to the first 6 digits which creates more doubt if it is coming from someone local or not. Absolutely hate this. I don't ever pick up an unknown number anymore. If is it really important/urgent, they will leave a voicemail and I check that immediately to ensure it was not a genuine/emergency call.
- jschwartzi 7y ago
  The best part of having an area code from when I was a kid is that if someone calls me from that area code I immediately know it's spam.
MarioMan 7y ago
I have to wonder why. I would expect that the technology and mitigations are fundamentally the same. Perhaps the difference is cultural.
- metaphor 7y ago
  Occam's razor would appear to suggest otherwise. US population is ~5x greater than the UK, while UK GDP per capita is less than the US. More generally, the per capita economic posture of the US is strong compared to the top 10 most populous countries in the world. If you were an opportunist robocalling scammer operating on a purely probabilistic model, the UK would be a pragmatically irrelevant target. The situation in the US isn't helped by regulatory capture either.
  - frosted-flakes 7y ago
    Sounds similar to the reason MacOS has much less malicious software than Windows.
reaperducer 7y ago
It seems to me like such a uniquely American problem Only if by "uniquely American" you mean also British: https://www.verdict.co.uk/robocalls-malicious/ https://www.verdict.co.uk/robocalls-malicious/ And Canadian: https://globalnews.ca/news/6136318/canada-telecom-robocalls-solution/ https://globalnews.ca/news/6136318/canada-telecom-robocalls-... And German: https://hiya.com/blog/2017/12/01/one-ring-scam-makes-way-to-germany/ https://hiya.com/blog/2017/12/01/one-ring-scam-makes-way-to-... And any other high-value target. No matter the scam, scammers go where the money and the people are.
- Tenoke 7y ago
  I've lived, worked and have numbers in the UĶ and Germany and the main spam I've had has been from LinkedIn. Robocalls happen maybe 10 times total per year for me in Germany, maybe a bit more in the UK and at least on a mobile number. Still annoying but hardly a dont-answer-phonecalls kind of thing.
laegooose 7y ago
I'm getting multiple spam calls per day in Russia
tbyehl 7y ago
Terminating a call in the US can be dramatically cheaper than the rest of the western world.