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Same here but every time I post that on this site I get replies about how they have to answer the phone because their kid could have fallen down a well and thei

by bhpm 3y ago

Same here but every time I post that on this site I get replies about how they have to answer the phone because their kid could have fallen down a well and their wife could be in a coma and the police would be trying to contact them and if they don’t jump to answer the phone every time it rings their entire family could be murdered. So IDK. It seems to be a problem, I just don’t have enough of a life for it to be for me.

otteromkram 3y ago
Every time you post...with a brand new account? You don't even have any submissions, yet.
- zamadatix 3y ago
  Some folks cycle throwaways over time instead of allowing a consistent identity to be built. The guidelines request nicely against doing so but some always do anyways of course.
  - nvy 3y ago
    That's because HN prioritizes aesthetics over privacy and won't allow you to delete your account and all its comments.
    - zamadatix 3y ago
      Being able to delete an account allows you to decide to remove your information from the site after a certain point. Cycling accounts is about not letting someone who looks at a single account at any time find enough information to piece together your identity at any point. Both are privacy related but the former is not a lead-in to the latter. As one who'd also like to see the ability to fully delete your HN account for privacy reasons I still think summarizing the alternative reasons as only aesthetics sells the counterarguments a bit short... ... but overall I'm getting myself and the whole conversation extremely off topic here. Probably best to discuss this in a thread about privacy on HN instead of one on robocallers.
  - sumtechguy 3y ago
    doesnt matter anyway there is a 'ai' that can troll thru the posts and figure you back out. unless you change the way you type and the words you use every time too.
pixl97 3y ago
That said, who doesn't send SMS texts also, at least in the US?
- baby 3y ago
  Just use whatsapp -.-
zamadatix 3y ago
You can cut through a surprising amount of spam by just reading the voicemail after letting an unknown number ring. If they didn't bother to leave one it was either not at all important or the vast majority of spam calls. If they did leave a voicemail you can generally tell whether it seems even remotely legitimate and, if it does, call back at the number. E.g. if you have a kid and the school calls they will leave something generic like "It's so and so elementary calling for <your name>..." you call the school's main number back and say "so and so called looking for me" and get directed to them. OTOH it seems if you ever answer these even once you're no longer a random number to try you're immediately marked as a real person who can be tricked into answering at least some calls and will never hear the end of the endless ringing.
- AussieWog93 3y ago
  This might be a cultural thing, but at least in Australia nobody under the age of 60 would ever leave a voicemail. If you're deliberately making yourself hard to contact this way, a lot of people will just stop calling you.
  - doublepg23 3y ago
    My friends wouldn't leave a voicemail but a nurse at my doctors office absolutely would.
  - zamadatix 3y ago
    This is genuinely pretty shocking to me. Would e.g. the person calling from the school about your kid getting hurt during recess just hang up and assume you'll call back immediately during the workday on the basis you had a missed call? If you mean for people you have relations with (friends/family/coworkers) most here gave up memorizing numbers a long time ago and none of those would show as an unknown number. This is common enough here in the US that the iPhone has a built in feature to only ring for known contacts and for unknowns only notify voicemails.
    - TeMPOraL 3y ago
doctor_radium 3y ago
Lol. T-Mobile has gotten good at flagging spam calls as "Scam Likely", but for the landline I do the same thing. (I don't believe landline carriers...at least in the US...were forced to implement Stir/Shaken, so it gets the full brunt.) My logic is always that if it's important, they'll leave a message. The landline message also includes the three escalating (line disconnected) SIT tones, which I would like to think helps. But if the spammer uses speech-to-text technology, I'm screwed. > Instead, report the phone number that the call instructs you to contact. Under the above scenario most callers aren't dumb enough to leave a message, and I'd be concerned that actually engaging with anybody would increase the number of calls, at least in the short term. If you're a staffer running the honeypot lines at the FCC, it would be fine because you can go home at the end of the day, but for a personal number I would need convincing. Would love to hear testimonials from anyone who tried this technique and their interpretation of the results.
nvy 3y ago
I simply have a whitelist of numbers I'll answer.
powersnail 3y ago
I'd assume police/hospital would leave a voice mail?

by bhpm 3y ago

otteromkram 3y ago

Every time you post...with a brand new account? You don't even have any submissions, yet.

zamadatix 3y ago
Some folks cycle throwaways over time instead of allowing a consistent identity to be built. The guidelines request nicely against doing so but some always do anyways of course.
- nvy 3y ago
  That's because HN prioritizes aesthetics over privacy and won't allow you to delete your account and all its comments.
  - zamadatix 3y ago
    Being able to delete an account allows you to decide to remove your information from the site after a certain point. Cycling accounts is about not letting someone who looks at a single account at any time find enough information to piece together your identity at any point. Both are privacy related but the former is not a lead-in to the latter. As one who'd also like to see the ability to fully delete your HN account for privacy reasons I still think summarizing the alternative reasons as only aesthetics sells the counterarguments a bit short... ... but overall I'm getting myself and the whole conversation extremely off topic here. Probably best to discuss this in a thread about privacy on HN instead of one on robocallers.
- sumtechguy 3y ago
  doesnt matter anyway there is a 'ai' that can troll thru the posts and figure you back out. unless you change the way you type and the words you use every time too.

pixl97 3y ago

That said, who doesn't send SMS texts also, at least in the US?

baby 3y ago
Just use whatsapp -.-

zamadatix 3y ago

You can cut through a surprising amount of spam by just reading the voicemail after letting an unknown number ring. If they didn't bother to leave one it was either not at all important or the vast majority of spam calls. If they did leave a voicemail you can generally tell whether it seems even remotely legitimate and, if it does, call back at the number. E.g. if you have a kid and the school calls they will leave something generic like "It's so and so elementary calling for <your name>..." you call the school's main number back and say "so and so called looking for me" and get directed to them. OTOH it seems if you ever answer these even once you're no longer a random number to try you're immediately marked as a real person who can be tricked into answering at least some calls and will never hear the end of the endless ringing.

AussieWog93 3y ago
This might be a cultural thing, but at least in Australia nobody under the age of 60 would ever leave a voicemail. If you're deliberately making yourself hard to contact this way, a lot of people will just stop calling you.
- doublepg23 3y ago
  My friends wouldn't leave a voicemail but a nurse at my doctors office absolutely would.
- zamadatix 3y ago
  This is genuinely pretty shocking to me. Would e.g. the person calling from the school about your kid getting hurt during recess just hang up and assume you'll call back immediately during the workday on the basis you had a missed call? If you mean for people you have relations with (friends/family/coworkers) most here gave up memorizing numbers a long time ago and none of those would show as an unknown number. This is common enough here in the US that the iPhone has a built in feature to only ring for known contacts and for unknowns only notify voicemails.
  - TeMPOraL 3y ago

doctor_radium 3y ago

Lol. T-Mobile has gotten good at flagging spam calls as "Scam Likely", but for the landline I do the same thing. (I don't believe landline carriers...at least in the US...were forced to implement Stir/Shaken, so it gets the full brunt.) My logic is always that if it's important, they'll leave a message. The landline message also includes the three escalating (line disconnected) SIT tones, which I would like to think helps. But if the spammer uses speech-to-text technology, I'm screwed. > Instead, report the phone number that the call instructs you to contact. Under the above scenario most callers aren't dumb enough to leave a message, and I'd be concerned that actually engaging with anybody would increase the number of calls, at least in the short term. If you're a staffer running the honeypot lines at the FCC, it would be fine because you can go home at the end of the day, but for a personal number I would need convincing. Would love to hear testimonials from anyone who tried this technique and their interpretation of the results.

nvy 3y ago

I simply have a whitelist of numbers I'll answer.

powersnail 3y ago

I'd assume police/hospital would leave a voice mail?