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So, you answer your phone to the scam and… now they have your voice too. Talking on the phone is now an unmitigated liability.

gilleain 3mo ago
The only solution? Answer the phone in an over the top comedy accent, such as Simpsons characters, or just whatever comes to mind.
- andrepd 3mo ago
  I actually fucking do this, and have done for a year or two. Sad state of affairs.
- matltc 3mo ago
  A terse, altered "Hello" is all I say. Sometimes I don't say anything. Most humans would wait a few seconds then prompt with "...Hello?", whereas bots tend to hang up after ~2s silence
  - lowbloodsugar 3mo ago
    Don’t you guys have phones that screen calls?
    - rationalist 3mo ago
      Yep, if the number is not in my comtacts, it goes straight to voicemail.
    - Symbiote 3mo ago
      My colleagues regularly get calls from nurseries, daycare, parents at the after school club, friends of their children or their parents and so on. They can probably ignore international calls, although only probably.
    - matltc 3mo ago
      Yes, but false negatives fall through. I don't pay for the call screening; maybe a paid version would be more successful. Mostly ignore unknown numbers, but if I'm expecting a call, I will pick up.
    - dredmorbius 3mo ago
      Because Reasons I'm looking at several feature-phone / dumbphone options. One feature that's conspicuously missing from many of these is "unknown call block" or equivalent. Which is completely staggering to me. I'm looking at other options, including VOIP / SIP Trunking, where it should in theory be possible to incorporate any arbitrarily complex call-screening feature(s), though Further Research is Needed. Android / iOS phones typically have several available options for call screening. Unfortunately they include numerous other issues and negatives. Sigh.
  - zelphirkalt 3mo ago
    When it is a human scam caller, what I sometimes do is to say "Hello" and then, when they start talking, and I can already guess they are full of shit, I act as if I am not hearing them properly and say "Hello?? Heeellooo? Hello?" Then they hang up lol.
  - deepspace 3mo ago
    That's my experience too. I mostly don't pick up calls from numbers that I don't recognize. On the very rare occasion that I am expecting such a call, I always stay silent after picking up. A real human will without fail start talking after a second or two.
- amanaplanacanal 3mo ago
  I just don't answer the phone. If it's important, they can leave a message.
abirch 3mo ago
A few years back, I would talk with scammers for a while to waste their time. Now I don't. LPT: Please have a codeword or phrase that you use with your loved ones so even if the scammers use your voice, they won't know the phrase.
- TomK32 3mo ago
  I'm getting a lot of calls recently and don't give them more than a Hello and whatever music, radio show or Tour de France broadcast I'm listening to. Sometimes they hang in there for half a minute.
  - xp84 3mo ago
    Sometimes if I’m suspicious about the number now, I just answer and say nothing. A human will get confused after 5 seconds and say “Hello?Hello??” But the very shitty bots that usually call, just wait patiently for a long time for your hello, and don’t seem at all fazed by it.
    - pavel_lishin 3mo ago
      You get actual humans calling you from unknown numbers? Lucky! I only ever get "Chase" from "Home Security Solutions" or whatever.
      - xp84 3mo ago
        Yeah, recently I've had quite a few legitimate ones, mostly having to do with home renovations or other transactions. I like most am deeply unsatisfied with the archaic system though of a basically unchangeable 10-digit number granting permission for anyone to fill up my phone with messages and interrupt me with calls, and hate that I have to ever answer calls from a number I don't know. I really would like a mutual opt-in system, where you have to pre-establish consent before it's even possible to message or call you, but it seems impossible to get there from here. We can't even get the stupid cell phone companies to strongly enforce that caller ID isn't spoofed!
baxtr 3mo ago
I somewhere read about a service that would use AI generated voices to combat these scam calls, basically talking to the forever. Forgot the name though...
- kerridge0 3mo ago
  It's Lenny
  - Nzen 3mo ago
    Thank you [0]. I searched and all I could find was Virgin Media's Daisy [1]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenny_(chatbot) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenny_(chatbot) [1] https://news.virginmediao2.co.uk/o2-unveils-daisy-the-ai-granny-wasting-scammers-time/ https://news.virginmediao2.co.uk/o2-unveils-daisy-the-ai-gra...

gilleain 3mo ago

The only solution? Answer the phone in an over the top comedy accent, such as Simpsons characters, or just whatever comes to mind.

andrepd 3mo ago
I actually fucking do this, and have done for a year or two. Sad state of affairs.
matltc 3mo ago
A terse, altered "Hello" is all I say. Sometimes I don't say anything. Most humans would wait a few seconds then prompt with "...Hello?", whereas bots tend to hang up after ~2s silence
- lowbloodsugar 3mo ago
  Don’t you guys have phones that screen calls?
  - rationalist 3mo ago
    Yep, if the number is not in my comtacts, it goes straight to voicemail.
  - Symbiote 3mo ago
    My colleagues regularly get calls from nurseries, daycare, parents at the after school club, friends of their children or their parents and so on. They can probably ignore international calls, although only probably.
  - matltc 3mo ago
    Yes, but false negatives fall through. I don't pay for the call screening; maybe a paid version would be more successful. Mostly ignore unknown numbers, but if I'm expecting a call, I will pick up.
  - dredmorbius 3mo ago
    Because Reasons I'm looking at several feature-phone / dumbphone options. One feature that's conspicuously missing from many of these is "unknown call block" or equivalent. Which is completely staggering to me. I'm looking at other options, including VOIP / SIP Trunking, where it should in theory be possible to incorporate any arbitrarily complex call-screening feature(s), though Further Research is Needed. Android / iOS phones typically have several available options for call screening. Unfortunately they include numerous other issues and negatives. Sigh.
- zelphirkalt 3mo ago
  When it is a human scam caller, what I sometimes do is to say "Hello" and then, when they start talking, and I can already guess they are full of shit, I act as if I am not hearing them properly and say "Hello?? Heeellooo? Hello?" Then they hang up lol.
- deepspace 3mo ago
  That's my experience too. I mostly don't pick up calls from numbers that I don't recognize. On the very rare occasion that I am expecting such a call, I always stay silent after picking up. A real human will without fail start talking after a second or two.
amanaplanacanal 3mo ago
I just don't answer the phone. If it's important, they can leave a message.

abirch 3mo ago

A few years back, I would talk with scammers for a while to waste their time. Now I don't. LPT: Please have a codeword or phrase that you use with your loved ones so even if the scammers use your voice, they won't know the phrase.

TomK32 3mo ago
I'm getting a lot of calls recently and don't give them more than a Hello and whatever music, radio show or Tour de France broadcast I'm listening to. Sometimes they hang in there for half a minute.
- xp84 3mo ago
  Sometimes if I’m suspicious about the number now, I just answer and say nothing. A human will get confused after 5 seconds and say “Hello?Hello??” But the very shitty bots that usually call, just wait patiently for a long time for your hello, and don’t seem at all fazed by it.
  - pavel_lishin 3mo ago
    You get actual humans calling you from unknown numbers? Lucky! I only ever get "Chase" from "Home Security Solutions" or whatever.
    - xp84 3mo ago
      Yeah, recently I've had quite a few legitimate ones, mostly having to do with home renovations or other transactions. I like most am deeply unsatisfied with the archaic system though of a basically unchangeable 10-digit number granting permission for anyone to fill up my phone with messages and interrupt me with calls, and hate that I have to ever answer calls from a number I don't know. I really would like a mutual opt-in system, where you have to pre-establish consent before it's even possible to message or call you, but it seems impossible to get there from here. We can't even get the stupid cell phone companies to strongly enforce that caller ID isn't spoofed!

baxtr 3mo ago

I somewhere read about a service that would use AI generated voices to combat these scam calls, basically talking to the forever. Forgot the name though...

kerridge0 3mo ago
It's Lenny
- Nzen 3mo ago
  Thank you [0]. I searched and all I could find was Virgin Media's Daisy [1]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenny_(chatbot) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenny_(chatbot) [1] https://news.virginmediao2.co.uk/o2-unveils-daisy-the-ai-granny-wasting-scammers-time/ https://news.virginmediao2.co.uk/o2-unveils-daisy-the-ai-gra...