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It's a hard problem to crack. Some legitimate places need to be able to call you without you knowing them ahead of time. Say your sibling was mugged in Mexico a

It's a hard problem to crack. Some legitimate places need to be able to call you without you knowing them ahead of time. Say your sibling was mugged in Mexico and the local little police station let them borrow the landline to call the only number they still remember without having to check their contacts in their phone. Are you not going to pick up? There are a lot of these little edge-cases. Journalists, lawyers representing class action suits, government id expiring, and so on.

duffyjp 6y ago
My iPhone is set to "Silence Unknown Callers." It's the perfect compromise. If a call is legitimate they'll leave a voicemail and I just call them back.
- macintux 6y ago
  I discovered recently that my Verizon phone service’s voicemail had been full for several months. I’m not sure how I was ever supposed to discover that, but I ignored what turned out to be an important phone call and got burnt because I assumed I’d get a voicemail.
benlivengood 6y ago
> Say your sibling was mugged in Mexico and the local little police station let them borrow the landline to call the only number they still remember without having to check their contacts in their phone. Are you not going to pick up? Just wait for the deepfaked voice call scammers. Their best bet is to work up the hierarchy; a tiny local police station knows how to get in touch with a bigger police station that can contact an embassy, etc. > There are a lot of these little edge-cases. Journalists, lawyers representing class action suits, government id expiring, and so on. All of these use-cases allow someone to spend the time to contact you via your preferred contact method, whatever that might be.
coldpie 6y ago
I'm in my 30s and I can't think of a single time I have ever received a phone call that I didn't expect. I get several spam calls every day. I would make the trade (and recently have, I block all unknown numbers now).
- reaperducer 6y ago
  I'm in my 30s and I can't think of a single time I have ever received a phone call that I didn't expect. I've read that people not answering their phones is the number one reason that COVID contact tracing doesn't work. But your comment makes me think that you've never had food delivered. Never used an Uber. Never owned a business. Never bought or sold real estate. Never rented a place to live. Never went to a restaurant with a wait list. Never done a lot of things that are perfectly ordinary, and require allowing people to contact you when they have questions.
  - nonameiguess 6y ago
    Most delivery services with an app have messaging built-in so you don't need to rely on calls, but I also know when I'm expecting a delivery or a driver to pick me up, and if an unknown call comes from my area code (the one I'm actually in, not the one my phone number is in), I'll answer that. It's pretty easy to distinguish between times I might expect a call and all other times. For all those other things, though, I'm not sure why you need to answer unknown numbers. I've never owned my own business, but did manage a small business and we had dedicated business lines. No one needed to call my personal phone. For buying and selling real estate, there are agents that act as go-betweens and you can put their number on your contacts list. For renting, put the management company on your contacts list.
    - reaperducer 6y ago
      Most delivery services with an app have messaging built-in so you don't need to rely on calls I've used dozens and dozens of delivery companies over the years, and the only delivery company I've found that doesn't have its people calling on phones is DoorDash, and even that uses SMS. Plus, most of the best places don't use services, they have their own people. we had dedicated business lines Doesn't help you when someone needs to contact you in an emergency, like the alarm company, or the landlord, or security, or the police, thousand other things. For buying and selling real estate, there are agents that act as go-betweens and you can put their number on your contacts list. Sounds good in theory, but doesn't work in practice. There can be dozens and dozens of people and companies involved in such a transaction, and you can't predict who they all are. For renting, put the management company on your contacts list. When the management company sends a vendor over to fix something, you don't know what number they'll call from. To "never" get an unexpected, important call sounds like a side effect of a quiet life. I envy you.

duffyjp 6y ago

My iPhone is set to "Silence Unknown Callers." It's the perfect compromise. If a call is legitimate they'll leave a voicemail and I just call them back.

macintux 6y ago
I discovered recently that my Verizon phone service’s voicemail had been full for several months. I’m not sure how I was ever supposed to discover that, but I ignored what turned out to be an important phone call and got burnt because I assumed I’d get a voicemail.

benlivengood 6y ago

> Say your sibling was mugged in Mexico and the local little police station let them borrow the landline to call the only number they still remember without having to check their contacts in their phone. Are you not going to pick up? Just wait for the deepfaked voice call scammers. Their best bet is to work up the hierarchy; a tiny local police station knows how to get in touch with a bigger police station that can contact an embassy, etc. > There are a lot of these little edge-cases. Journalists, lawyers representing class action suits, government id expiring, and so on. All of these use-cases allow someone to spend the time to contact you via your preferred contact method, whatever that might be.

coldpie 6y ago

I'm in my 30s and I can't think of a single time I have ever received a phone call that I didn't expect. I get several spam calls every day. I would make the trade (and recently have, I block all unknown numbers now).

reaperducer 6y ago
I'm in my 30s and I can't think of a single time I have ever received a phone call that I didn't expect. I've read that people not answering their phones is the number one reason that COVID contact tracing doesn't work. But your comment makes me think that you've never had food delivered. Never used an Uber. Never owned a business. Never bought or sold real estate. Never rented a place to live. Never went to a restaurant with a wait list. Never done a lot of things that are perfectly ordinary, and require allowing people to contact you when they have questions.
- nonameiguess 6y ago
  Most delivery services with an app have messaging built-in so you don't need to rely on calls, but I also know when I'm expecting a delivery or a driver to pick me up, and if an unknown call comes from my area code (the one I'm actually in, not the one my phone number is in), I'll answer that. It's pretty easy to distinguish between times I might expect a call and all other times. For all those other things, though, I'm not sure why you need to answer unknown numbers. I've never owned my own business, but did manage a small business and we had dedicated business lines. No one needed to call my personal phone. For buying and selling real estate, there are agents that act as go-betweens and you can put their number on your contacts list. For renting, put the management company on your contacts list.
  - reaperducer 6y ago
    Most delivery services with an app have messaging built-in so you don't need to rely on calls I've used dozens and dozens of delivery companies over the years, and the only delivery company I've found that doesn't have its people calling on phones is DoorDash, and even that uses SMS. Plus, most of the best places don't use services, they have their own people. we had dedicated business lines Doesn't help you when someone needs to contact you in an emergency, like the alarm company, or the landlord, or security, or the police, thousand other things. For buying and selling real estate, there are agents that act as go-betweens and you can put their number on your contacts list. Sounds good in theory, but doesn't work in practice. There can be dozens and dozens of people and companies involved in such a transaction, and you can't predict who they all are. For renting, put the management company on your contacts list. When the management company sends a vendor over to fix something, you don't know what number they'll call from. To "never" get an unexpected, important call sounds like a side effect of a quiet life. I envy you.