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I've been getting these calls where nobody says anything for like 3 minutes then someone says Hello. My paranoid mind thinks they are trying to record my voice

I've been getting these calls where nobody says anything for like 3 minutes then someone says Hello. My paranoid mind thinks they are trying to record my voice to use AI to impersonate me.

pmontra 3y ago
Should we start randomly picking the helo message from other countries? I'd go with mushi-mushi. A number of my friends would understand that.
- Larrikin 3y ago
  They wouldn't if you said it like that https://jisho.org/word/%E3%82%82%E3%81%97%E3%82%82%E3%81%97 https://jisho.org/word/%E3%82%82%E3%81%97%E3%82%82%E3%81%97
ooterness 3y ago
Same. Probably from playing too much Uplink, where calling the sysadmin was the easy way to circumvent the voiceprint authentication. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uplink_(video_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uplink_(video_game) "I am the systems administrator. My voice is my passport. Verify me." (Which is itself a callback to the 1992 movie Sneakers.)
- throwaway29812 3y ago
  That game was so, so good. Do you know any others that feel the same way? (doesn't have to be about hacking)
acomjean 3y ago
The pause used to be while they routed the auto dialed call to an available agent (can’t have them waiting for the rings… efficiency!). In this case you may be right.
coldpie 3y ago
FWIW, I get these, too. All unknown numbers go straight to voicemail, which auto-transcribes, so I just see "Hello... hello..." in the transcription and hit delete. No idea what it's about.
mschuster91 3y ago
> My paranoid mind thinks they are trying to record my voice to use AI to impersonate me. You're not paranoid, banks, the Minnesota Attorney General and the FCC have been warning about scammers recording even as simple as a "yes" to use in their scams [1][2][3], although actual evidence has been scarce to say the least [4]. [1] https://www.membersalliance.org/_/kcms-doc/816/34363/Can-You-Hear-Me.pdf https://www.membersalliance.org/_/kcms-doc/816/34363/Can-You... [2] https://www.ag.state.mn.us/Consumer/Publications/CanYouHearMe.asp https://www.ag.state.mn.us/Consumer/Publications/CanYouHearM... [3] https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-warns-can-you-hear-me-phone-scams https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-warns-can-you-hear-me-phone... [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Can_You_Hear_Me%3F_(telephone_scam) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Can_You_Hear_Me%3F_(telephone_...
- pndy 3y ago
  I've got this call regarding energy prices in Poland (worth mention, it happen AFTER maximum prices threshold was frozen by govt). A pre-recorded "lady" persistently tries to force me to say "yes" going with "something interrupted us, can you hear me?" over seven times. Search results point for this number as being related to PV panels scam.
stainablesteel 3y ago
i've had the same thoughts since the mass amount of robo called happened for the last 8 years its definitely whats happening, you're not crazy
bee_rider 3y ago
I got a call sort of like that, it was bizarre. A person claiming to be a Comcast rep called, introduced themselves, asked if I was me, and then immediately hung up as soon as I made a noise. It is possible they just hung up because I was already a little skeptical and feeling cagey, so didn’t give an enthusiastic “yeah that’s me.” Anyway, I’ve never been called for something that benefits me. So, hopefully every company that depends on cold-calling will go out of business soon as everyone younger than, like, halfway through gen X doesn’t pick up their phone anymore.
philsnow 3y ago
My thought has been that they're listening for background sounds to try to beef up the advertising profile they have on me. Maybe there is some super sketchy ad-tech company putting beacons that emit a QR-like UUID audio signature in the frequencies near the top and bottom of the range that gets transmitted by cell phones, and ringing you up from a robo-dialer and listening for the beacons tells them where you are.
- potsandpans 3y ago
  As far fetched as it sounds, it wouldn't surprise me at all.
  - leptons 3y ago
    It's already happened. https://medium.com/@Gentlemen_ESWAR/your-phone-is-listening-ultrasonic-cross-device-tracking-db3b2d9ca07a https://medium.com/@Gentlemen_ESWAR/your-phone-is-listening-...
    - smolder 3y ago
      The quality of the writing in your link is hilariously bad. I'm biased against trusting big blobs of unpunctuated text.

I've been getting these calls where nobody says anything for like 3 minutes then someone says Hello. My paranoid mind thinks they are trying to record my voice to use AI to impersonate me.

pmontra 3y ago

Should we start randomly picking the helo message from other countries? I'd go with mushi-mushi. A number of my friends would understand that.

Larrikin 3y ago
They wouldn't if you said it like that https://jisho.org/word/%E3%82%82%E3%81%97%E3%82%82%E3%81%97 https://jisho.org/word/%E3%82%82%E3%81%97%E3%82%82%E3%81%97

ooterness 3y ago

Same. Probably from playing too much Uplink, where calling the sysadmin was the easy way to circumvent the voiceprint authentication. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uplink_(video_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uplink_(video_game) "I am the systems administrator. My voice is my passport. Verify me." (Which is itself a callback to the 1992 movie Sneakers.)

throwaway29812 3y ago
That game was so, so good. Do you know any others that feel the same way? (doesn't have to be about hacking)

acomjean 3y ago

The pause used to be while they routed the auto dialed call to an available agent (can’t have them waiting for the rings… efficiency!). In this case you may be right.

coldpie 3y ago

FWIW, I get these, too. All unknown numbers go straight to voicemail, which auto-transcribes, so I just see "Hello... hello..." in the transcription and hit delete. No idea what it's about.

mschuster91 3y ago

> My paranoid mind thinks they are trying to record my voice to use AI to impersonate me. You're not paranoid, banks, the Minnesota Attorney General and the FCC have been warning about scammers recording even as simple as a "yes" to use in their scams [1][2][3], although actual evidence has been scarce to say the least [4]. [1] https://www.membersalliance.org/_/kcms-doc/816/34363/Can-You-Hear-Me.pdf https://www.membersalliance.org/_/kcms-doc/816/34363/Can-You... [2] https://www.ag.state.mn.us/Consumer/Publications/CanYouHearMe.asp https://www.ag.state.mn.us/Consumer/Publications/CanYouHearM... [3] https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-warns-can-you-hear-me-phone-scams https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-warns-can-you-hear-me-phone... [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Can_You_Hear_Me%3F_(telephone_scam) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Can_You_Hear_Me%3F_(telephone_...

pndy 3y ago
I've got this call regarding energy prices in Poland (worth mention, it happen AFTER maximum prices threshold was frozen by govt). A pre-recorded "lady" persistently tries to force me to say "yes" going with "something interrupted us, can you hear me?" over seven times. Search results point for this number as being related to PV panels scam.

stainablesteel 3y ago

i've had the same thoughts since the mass amount of robo called happened for the last 8 years its definitely whats happening, you're not crazy

bee_rider 3y ago

I got a call sort of like that, it was bizarre. A person claiming to be a Comcast rep called, introduced themselves, asked if I was me, and then immediately hung up as soon as I made a noise. It is possible they just hung up because I was already a little skeptical and feeling cagey, so didn’t give an enthusiastic “yeah that’s me.” Anyway, I’ve never been called for something that benefits me. So, hopefully every company that depends on cold-calling will go out of business soon as everyone younger than, like, halfway through gen X doesn’t pick up their phone anymore.

philsnow 3y ago

My thought has been that they're listening for background sounds to try to beef up the advertising profile they have on me. Maybe there is some super sketchy ad-tech company putting beacons that emit a QR-like UUID audio signature in the frequencies near the top and bottom of the range that gets transmitted by cell phones, and ringing you up from a robo-dialer and listening for the beacons tells them where you are.

potsandpans 3y ago
As far fetched as it sounds, it wouldn't surprise me at all.
- leptons 3y ago
  It's already happened. https://medium.com/@Gentlemen_ESWAR/your-phone-is-listening-ultrasonic-cross-device-tracking-db3b2d9ca07a https://medium.com/@Gentlemen_ESWAR/your-phone-is-listening-...
  - smolder 3y ago
    The quality of the writing in your link is hilariously bad. I'm biased against trusting big blobs of unpunctuated text.