4 ms·

Do you not get spam calls on your phone? Phone numbers that are put into this site are likely to be valid & active, making them valuable data to sell.

toast0 6y ago
From what I can tell, spam calls are mostly war dialing. Some of them are actually going sequentially, my spouse's number is about 400 away from mine, and sometimes she gets the same automated call minutes after me.
- kencausey 6y ago
  Well, from what I can tell, older people are targeted at far high rate. Age seems to be a valued input to the process. I can guess a number of reasons for that.
  - willcipriano 6y ago
    Does anyone under 50 pick up the phone if they don't know the number that's calling?
    - countername 6y ago
      Yes
    - daniel_j 6y ago
      When searching for a job is the best example. Though these are usually not hidden numbers and for me, if a mobile is calling it's either a wrong number or work related. Spam seems to always a landline.
      - frosted-flakes 6y ago
        In North America, all phones, landline or cell, have the same number format: 1 (222) 345-6789, where 222 is the area code.
        daniel_j 6y ago
        Oh that's interesting, here in Australia mobile numbers are always 04xx xxx xxx (though according to wikipedia, 5 is also valid but i've not seen it)
    - Turing_Machine 6y ago
      Most people I know over 50 don't answer unknown numbers either. But it's the same as spam... getting one victim out of a hundred thousand is probably enough to make it pay off.
    - accelbred 6y ago
      Only when I'm on call.
    - ramphastidae 6y ago
      Sure. Ever gotten a call from a delivery person with food? A doctor’s office with test results? A hair salon confirming an appointment? A teammate with an emergency at work? A taxi driver with the wallet you forgot? A distant relative that needs help? A potential customer referred by a friend?
      - jackson1442 6y ago
        Food I’m expecting, so I pick up. Usually my phone actually tells me it’s DoorDash calling, which is nice. Just about all the others get to go to voicemail and I’ll read the vm messages at my leisure as my phone transcribes them for me.
    - ryandrake 6y ago
      My parents (over 70) get so many spam calls on their land line it’s comical. Last time I visited them the calls would come two or three per hour, nonstop, day and night. They would leave the phone off the hook at night so it wouldn’t disturb their sleep. It gets worse every decade. Answered a few of them and it was always the usual suspects: the IRS, Microsoft tech support, your credit card company, vacation winner, etc. Best thing they ever did was cancel their (at least) 50 year old phone number.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
eli 6y ago
In my area code pretty much all the numbers are in use. You don't need to compile a database to spam random people. Just dial any 7 numbers.
colinmhayes 6y ago
I haver never given my number out yet get 5+ spam calls a day. Can't be stopped.
gfxgirl 6y ago
So I'm curious. I live in Japan and have a Japanese number. I have a USA number via Google Fi. I get several spam calls on the USA number but zero on the Japan number. Any idea why? It it just luck? It is scammers don't target Japan? Is it some technical difference that makes it harder/impossible/costly in Japan? Is it an enforcement issue? Also what happened / is happening with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STIR/SHAKEN https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STIR/SHAKEN ? Will it solve the issue?
- toast0 6y ago
  A quick look at my voip carrier says calls to us are 1 cent, and calls to Japan land lines are about 2.5 cents, and Japan mobile is 10 cents. They've generally got pretty good pricing; with volume you can get better, but this is a good place to start. So call cost is going to be a lot more. Then you've got to find voice talent. You can find English voice talent all over the globe, Japanese voice talent is harder to find and probably costs more. STIR/SHAKEN will likely help somewhat. It should make it easier to track down accounts of callers, but we'll have to see if enforcement becomes effective, or if actionable complaints make enough of a difference. I don't think telephone companies regular record enough metadata for effective enforcement at the moment, and there isn't a reasonable way to report abuse, so most people just shrug and pick up less calls; we really need a useful reporting mechanism (dial * something after you get a spam call should work IMHO; but that's not me doing the work to correlate reports and what not)

toast0 6y ago

From what I can tell, spam calls are mostly war dialing. Some of them are actually going sequentially, my spouse's number is about 400 away from mine, and sometimes she gets the same automated call minutes after me.

kencausey 6y ago
Well, from what I can tell, older people are targeted at far high rate. Age seems to be a valued input to the process. I can guess a number of reasons for that.
- willcipriano 6y ago
  Does anyone under 50 pick up the phone if they don't know the number that's calling?
  - countername 6y ago
    Yes
  - daniel_j 6y ago
    When searching for a job is the best example. Though these are usually not hidden numbers and for me, if a mobile is calling it's either a wrong number or work related. Spam seems to always a landline.
    - frosted-flakes 6y ago
      In North America, all phones, landline or cell, have the same number format: 1 (222) 345-6789, where 222 is the area code.
      - daniel_j 6y ago
        Oh that's interesting, here in Australia mobile numbers are always 04xx xxx xxx (though according to wikipedia, 5 is also valid but i've not seen it)
  - Turing_Machine 6y ago
    Most people I know over 50 don't answer unknown numbers either. But it's the same as spam... getting one victim out of a hundred thousand is probably enough to make it pay off.
  - accelbred 6y ago
    Only when I'm on call.
  - ramphastidae 6y ago
    Sure. Ever gotten a call from a delivery person with food? A doctor’s office with test results? A hair salon confirming an appointment? A teammate with an emergency at work? A taxi driver with the wallet you forgot? A distant relative that needs help? A potential customer referred by a friend?
    - jackson1442 6y ago
      Food I’m expecting, so I pick up. Usually my phone actually tells me it’s DoorDash calling, which is nice. Just about all the others get to go to voicemail and I’ll read the vm messages at my leisure as my phone transcribes them for me.
  - ryandrake 6y ago
    My parents (over 70) get so many spam calls on their land line it’s comical. Last time I visited them the calls would come two or three per hour, nonstop, day and night. They would leave the phone off the hook at night so it wouldn’t disturb their sleep. It gets worse every decade. Answered a few of them and it was always the usual suspects: the IRS, Microsoft tech support, your credit card company, vacation winner, etc. Best thing they ever did was cancel their (at least) 50 year old phone number.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

eli 6y ago

In my area code pretty much all the numbers are in use. You don't need to compile a database to spam random people. Just dial any 7 numbers.

colinmhayes 6y ago

I haver never given my number out yet get 5+ spam calls a day. Can't be stopped.

gfxgirl 6y ago

So I'm curious. I live in Japan and have a Japanese number. I have a USA number via Google Fi. I get several spam calls on the USA number but zero on the Japan number. Any idea why? It it just luck? It is scammers don't target Japan? Is it some technical difference that makes it harder/impossible/costly in Japan? Is it an enforcement issue? Also what happened / is happening with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STIR/SHAKEN https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STIR/SHAKEN ? Will it solve the issue?

toast0 6y ago
A quick look at my voip carrier says calls to us are 1 cent, and calls to Japan land lines are about 2.5 cents, and Japan mobile is 10 cents. They've generally got pretty good pricing; with volume you can get better, but this is a good place to start. So call cost is going to be a lot more. Then you've got to find voice talent. You can find English voice talent all over the globe, Japanese voice talent is harder to find and probably costs more. STIR/SHAKEN will likely help somewhat. It should make it easier to track down accounts of callers, but we'll have to see if enforcement becomes effective, or if actionable complaints make enough of a difference. I don't think telephone companies regular record enough metadata for effective enforcement at the moment, and there isn't a reasonable way to report abuse, so most people just shrug and pick up less calls; we really need a useful reporting mechanism (dial * something after you get a spam call should work IMHO; but that's not me doing the work to correlate reports and what not)