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To me, answering calls from random or unknown numbers is something the older generation do, the one that grew up before phone spam became the norm. I would esti

To me, answering calls from random or unknown numbers is something the older generation do, the one that grew up before phone spam became the norm. I would estimate that, in general, less than half of incoming calls to my phone are legitimate. Of course, hiking on a mountain is an exceptional case, where you might reasonably expect that people will set out to search for you (possibly putting themselves in danger) if you are gone for an unreasonable amount of time. I wonder did they try text or leave a VM. (As an aside, "The hiker had gotten disoriented in an ordeal that lasted about 24 hours" reminded me of the "fugue state" from Breaking Bad.)

davely 3y ago
Anecdotal fallacy warning, but I just checked my phone call logs on my iPhone. Of the 12 phone calls I've gotten in the past week, exactly 1 was legit.
Buttons840 3y ago
> the one that grew up before phone spam became the norm I think there's been phone spam for a long time, it's just that previous generation's phone spam was so innocent. An unsolicited salesman calls and tries to sell you some magazines. If you actually buy the magazines, you'll actually get the magazines. Compare that to today. The caller records your voice and even saying "hello" might allow them to clone your voice and then use your voice to scam your spouse. If you buy their magazines (or whatever the modern equivalent is), you'll probably get it, but also they might just steal your money and sell any information you give them on the personal data markets. This is the same in advertising too. Old TV advertisements told you about a product and then hoped you'd buy it when you went to the store, fair enough. Compare that to today's YouTube advertisements that are often straight up scams and merely watching the ad or viewing the associate website is revealing information about yourself which will be sold unregulated. Is this a rosey view of the past? Are we just suffering late-stage capitalism or is there something more specific we can blame these changes on?
- tmountain 3y ago
  It takes a lot more than “hello” to clone someone’s voice. A lightweight voice clone requires 2-3 minutes of audio dictation for acceptable results.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - WorldMaker 3y ago
    It depends on what you are cloning for. If you are just trying to just convince some other interactive voice response (IVR) system that you can answer the phone as human "Hello" may be enough to get to the next menu. Don't underestimate the power of a few taped lines, especially in the world of increasing automation on every side of a phone call (and plenty of systems talking to systems with fewer and fewer humans in the loop).
aidenn0 3y ago
> To me, answering calls from random or unknown numbers is something the older generation do, the one that grew up before phone spam became the norm. I would estimate that, in general, less than half of incoming calls to my phone are legitimate. I would say I get about 20 spam calls for every legitimate call I get (1-2 legitimate calls per day, 20-40 spam calls).
- pc86 3y ago
  This is one call every 22 minutes. Even half that, pushing every ~45 minutes, is well past the point I would just get a new phone number. That being said I'm probably exactly the type of person to have a full VM with no legitimate messages in it.
  - jstarfish 3y ago
    > well past the point I would just get a new phone number Agreed, but 2FA makes this a non-starter. I don't want to find out a year from now that I can't access ___ service because they have my old number on file and won't let me change it. As it is I can't get into my bank account to pay my phone bill if it's past due and service gets suspended. It's infuriating.
- InCityDreams 3y ago
  All ow the calls through. When a human starts talking don't hang up, but don't speak to them either. Allow them to hang up. You'll soon get taken off the lists.
  - krunck 3y ago
    Pick up the phone, keep silent for 5 seconds. A human on the other end would say something or you would hear background noise. If you don't hear anything, hang up. This works because the auto-dialers that call centers use listen for you to say something before starting the robo-dialogue or patching you into a meat-talker.
    - 3y ago
cdchn 3y ago
"The voicemail box you're trying to reach is full" (Of spam calls)

davely 3y ago

Anecdotal fallacy warning, but I just checked my phone call logs on my iPhone. Of the 12 phone calls I've gotten in the past week, exactly 1 was legit.

Buttons840 3y ago

> the one that grew up before phone spam became the norm I think there's been phone spam for a long time, it's just that previous generation's phone spam was so innocent. An unsolicited salesman calls and tries to sell you some magazines. If you actually buy the magazines, you'll actually get the magazines. Compare that to today. The caller records your voice and even saying "hello" might allow them to clone your voice and then use your voice to scam your spouse. If you buy their magazines (or whatever the modern equivalent is), you'll probably get it, but also they might just steal your money and sell any information you give them on the personal data markets. This is the same in advertising too. Old TV advertisements told you about a product and then hoped you'd buy it when you went to the store, fair enough. Compare that to today's YouTube advertisements that are often straight up scams and merely watching the ad or viewing the associate website is revealing information about yourself which will be sold unregulated. Is this a rosey view of the past? Are we just suffering late-stage capitalism or is there something more specific we can blame these changes on?

tmountain 3y ago
It takes a lot more than “hello” to clone someone’s voice. A lightweight voice clone requires 2-3 minutes of audio dictation for acceptable results.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- WorldMaker 3y ago
  It depends on what you are cloning for. If you are just trying to just convince some other interactive voice response (IVR) system that you can answer the phone as human "Hello" may be enough to get to the next menu. Don't underestimate the power of a few taped lines, especially in the world of increasing automation on every side of a phone call (and plenty of systems talking to systems with fewer and fewer humans in the loop).

aidenn0 3y ago

> To me, answering calls from random or unknown numbers is something the older generation do, the one that grew up before phone spam became the norm. I would estimate that, in general, less than half of incoming calls to my phone are legitimate. I would say I get about 20 spam calls for every legitimate call I get (1-2 legitimate calls per day, 20-40 spam calls).

pc86 3y ago
This is one call every 22 minutes. Even half that, pushing every ~45 minutes, is well past the point I would just get a new phone number. That being said I'm probably exactly the type of person to have a full VM with no legitimate messages in it.
- jstarfish 3y ago
  > well past the point I would just get a new phone number Agreed, but 2FA makes this a non-starter. I don't want to find out a year from now that I can't access ___ service because they have my old number on file and won't let me change it. As it is I can't get into my bank account to pay my phone bill if it's past due and service gets suspended. It's infuriating.
InCityDreams 3y ago
All ow the calls through. When a human starts talking don't hang up, but don't speak to them either. Allow them to hang up. You'll soon get taken off the lists.
- krunck 3y ago
  Pick up the phone, keep silent for 5 seconds. A human on the other end would say something or you would hear background noise. If you don't hear anything, hang up. This works because the auto-dialers that call centers use listen for you to say something before starting the robo-dialogue or patching you into a meat-talker.
  - 3y ago

cdchn 3y ago

"The voicemail box you're trying to reach is full" (Of spam calls)