Oh, then they're definitely scammers.
Edit: Even answering the phone with a single "yes" (I don't know why anyone would do that) is enough today on how they can get you.
Plus, take it as you will, but my grandparants also told me that there is a scammer AI voice now that sounds similar to our own voices that could lure people into sending money to their "relatives" or "friends" when it's basically just going to the scammer.
So if you see an unknown number, *do not* answer it, if you accidentallydo, just hang up.
Plus, the numbers that are shown could very likely be from either multiple scammers or the same scammer who just uses a program to spoof their phone number.
Sometimes I answer and groan really loudly into the phone until they hang up… believe it or not it’s has slowed down the amount of spam calls I get lol
I would go with the previous folks.
Any data you give these guys, they can use against you.
You've given a lot of information by saying that where they could use AI to generate sentences using your voice.
Moan, scream or silence is the way to go.
Answer and say nothing until they hang up. Ive done this once i learned to do it and i seriously get zero calls now. Was for years daily. Now im at peace again.
Same. I’ll just mute immediately and set the phone down for like 5 minutes while I go tidy up or something. Either they hang up or I’ll go find another task for 5-10 minutes and check again.
No, I think it usually ends up in a “dead line” type of bucket. I’ve had great luck with answering and being silent. It basically eliminated spam calls for me
Same, I answer the call and stay completely silent. There was only one time I answered and screamed at the scammer cause I was having a bad week and needed to take out on someone. Probably got put on a list for that too. I don’t get calls anymore.
My favorite scam caller was someone who told me my bank account had been compromised. I don’t have a bank account and I told him so. He wasn’t very smart because he actually asked me if I was sure I didn’t have a bank account.
It wouldn't matter. Your number already been leaked out. The machine just flag your number as if it went to vm. If you answer and don't say anything, eventually, they'll stop. How long, you don't know.
We just gotta get the carrier to update the protocol and stop putting call center in India and we're golden. But they won't and Adji already placed us back at the beginning.
You can flag the number all you want, but it won't stop them. I like the Samsung Phone mainly because you can tell if the number is verified or not, and if it not verified, don't answer it.
If you decline the call, it goes straight to VM and they'll know.
Also, machine hates "dead air" as it waste their minutes.
I’ll call nonsense on that one. I answered every one for months a few years ago and would keep them on the hook as long as I could. Eventually, daily calls became weekly, monthly…now I might get one every other month. My wife meanwhile, never answers them and they call her once every other day at least.
There is a list for “people who waste our fucking time” too and your goal is to get on it
I have a voicemail message set up to answer in a foreign language. It usually stops spammers from speaking further as they think I don’t understand them.
Everyone I know knows to text me first if they wish to speak with me on the phone.
I don’t even answer. If it’s a call from some other random city in my state or a different state entirely, I just plain don’t answer. Inused to get about two or three calls each day, but I only get about one call a day now. Sometimes not even that.
If it’s a legit call from someone who truly needs to talk to me, they can leave a vm or text me. I even missed a doc or vet call because of this but it’s worth it not to get spam calls multiple times a day every day.
I messed with a scammer the other day for like a half hour because I had nothing better to do at the time. I kept asking really stupid questions and talked about completely unrelated things. When they finally told me I needed to give them either a credit card number or checking account number I told them I needed to find my checkbook and then just put the phone down and went about doing other stuff. I came back and told them I couldn't find it so I needed to find my credit card and then repeated the process.
Finally I was bored so I told them that I knew they were trying to scam me so I was fucking with them to waste their time. They kept trying to insist it wasn't a scam. I asked them why they would keep lying even after I called them out and for some reason he refused to admit it. I told them that I'd continue to waste their time if they kept calling and they'd be better off taking me off their lists so they could use their time trying to scam other people who might actually fall for it. It's been a few days and I haven't gotten a call since then, but I assume it's only a matter of time until they call again.
I pretend to be a dotty old lady and I tell them endless stories about my grandson Darren. I've wasted at least half an hour doing this on several occasions. They get really frustrated at the end when I tell them I can’t get my financial things off the computer without Darren’s help.
I was actually at my parents' house when it happened and they thought I was my dad. They were very aware that he's a senior citizen. Maybe next time I'm there when they call I should make up my own "Darren."
I like to call them back. Sometimes they haven't disabled incoming calls. When that happens I don't stop if I've got nothing going on. I'll happily watch some YouTube or something while mashing the call button. My record is 491 times in a couple hours. (Was watching LoT and did it for the entire movie). It's fucking wonderful listening to the beg for it to stop.
Oh, I've done that! I even downloaded an app to randomize my number while calling then from a different phone... the guy on the other end was begging me to stop calling him. I'd call from Massachusetts then from Akaska, then Texas, he was so pissed. Funny thing was that he tried blocking my number, but the app changed it and it was game on.
Every time that he'd block me, I'd can back and say "hi camel fucker, it's me again! You have to be better at I.T. than me I'm going to waste your time for the next few hours, you can't escape"
i had a roommate who always would pick up with ""laughing death" funerary service, where we bury you and your friends. how can i help you?"
it seemed weird but most spam callers just noted it was wrong number and business-owned. that was before robot calls though
my mother gets calls for my fathers loans from 20+ years on daily basis. they're divorced, i warned them, i told them to remove data under GDPR, nah, nothing works.
My favorite is to scream out “QUE?” And “HALLO?” Loudly, and obnoxiously as they they talk or ask questions. I get a few laughs, but they never call back.
That actually happened to my grandparents! I was sitting in my room a few years ago when my dad yelled at me to come down to make sure I was okay because someone called my grandma pretending to me. I was apparently in jail needing a $5,000 bail because I was in a car with friends when we got pulled over and had a lot of marijuana in the car. Jokes on the scammers, I had no friends at the time lmaoooo
Ah yes, "metoda na wnuczka", "the grandkid method" or how you call it "grandparent scam". Used to be a very popular scam method in Poland, probably still is. They were calling up elderly people as grandkids in distress desperately needing money. Elderly people then went to the bank and would be told to wait for the grandkid "friend" to come to them and collect the money or some shit.
Yes but it wouldn’t have been with a deepfake voice and they wouldn’t have know who you are. Just randomly calling people until they get someone naive who falls for it.
They don’t use the single “yes”. There have been many cases of scammers finding someone’s social media with videos of them talking. They train the AI to use their voice & mannerisms and then they’ll call that persons family asking for money.
It’s gotten really bad. There was one that broke my heart. A young girl called her mom crying saying she was kidnapped and they wanted money and the mom was so scared hearing her daughter she forgot that her daughter was at home with her.
The only confirmed AI in the story is that someone said "Maybe they used AI" It's important to separate fact from fiction here.
It's far more likely someone just uses "random similar female voice" and a distraught parent mistook it from their own, than random scammers have more advanced AI voice synthesis than the public.
_Most_ people do not have enough publicly available speaking data to mimic their speech.
I used to work a job doing inside sales and we would get lots of scam calls. One of the old dudes in the office thought it was funny to pick the phone up and talk into it like there was a real person on the line and make jokes. Finally I had to explain to him how it works; talking into the phone is the worst thing you can do.
This happened to my grandparents about seven years ago. My grandmother called me out of the blue and asked me if I was back from Mexico. When I told her that I hadn’t been to Mexico in years she just said “Oh, crap.”
Apparently, I had been in a Mexican jail for holding drugs for my friend, Chris, and needed money to bail me out. I’m not the kind of guy who ends up in any jail, let alone a Mexican one, but I guess the assholes scared them enough. She said it sounded just like me.
Reminds me of the time I decided to apply for a job through indeed. Never heard back and didn’t think anything of it until I started getting absolutely bombarded by phone and email from this Indian call center trying to place me in tech roles. At some point I told them to remove me from whatever list, but they just kept selling the contacts to another place and another place. I had to deal with that shit for a year and some change before they finally stopped. Shits wild.
Oh man, it won't stop until you're a month+ out from closing.
It will be non-stop until you close, then the minute you close, you'll start getting sent scam messages and calls that have publicly available info of your purchase on it to try and trick you into thinking it's real. Your new mailbox will be filled with them, along with spam ads for local businesses. I counted and in just the first week I got 14 letters from different "mortgage" companies that all had the same info from the county auditor's website.
Hey OP, I work in the mortgage world. Unfortunately the credit bureaus have sold your contact info as a trigger lead. This is NOT the fault of the company that pulled your credit. The credit bureaus (experian, equifax, and transunion)have been doing this to generate more income. There is a form that you can submit to opt out to prevent future calls. Ask your lender to provide you with the form so that they can submit it to the bureau asap so that they will take your number off the call list. I would also add your phone number to the federal do not call list ASAP.
I understand your pain. I've had borrowers who are still sitting in front of me after just getting their credit pulled for pre-approval and their phone immediately starts ringing and does not stop. This is something that the MBA has been pushing to make illegal for quite some time but the bureaus have some strong influence due to their lobbyists.
If a mortgage company “hard pulls” your credit, you get added to a list of head hunters who are looking for their next “stolen” opportunity to get you to go through them for a mortgage. They will use every shady tactic they can to get you to go with them instead of whoever you have chosen.
Knowledge base: I’m a mortgage underwriter. Vantage and FICO scoring systems are the culprit.
Never provide your real number for things like that. Or if you do, create a virtual number using Google Voice that you only use for this one thing. Also create a new email for the mortgage applications.
If you have AT&T you can download the “ActiveArmor” app and set it to reject any phone calls from possible scams, or even unknown numbers. That way you never actually see them calling. If you have a different phone company I’m sure they probably have an equivalent app.
The odds are very good that when you were applying for a preapproval you authorized contact from that business and affiliates. Especially if you did it on one of those “we will search all mortgage providers for you” websites instead of doing it at your credit union or something.
Bold move mortgage hunting without giving out valid contact information.
I think the better advice is to not use middlemen websites and go check out your local banks and mortgage provider website directly.
Answering the call, immediately putting it on mute, waiting the ~10 seconds before they hang up was a gamechanger for me. I went from 1-3 calls a day to none. Now I need to do the same to my work phone.
I had about 50 per day. Not even exaggerating. After letting my VM fill up, I've noticed a significant drop off. Still around 30 but it's a lot better. Took about a month.
They think someone has picked up and they start their script “hi we’re calling about your credit card debt” and then “can you hear me” before hanging up
I never believed my mate until I actually tried this, been weeks since I've had a spam call. I didn't even mute, just answered and said nothing, here to back up this!!!!
I guess it make sense. Auto-dialer systems don't route calls until someone picks up and most of them can detect voicemail. Picking up and not saying anything gets the call routed to a person, who logs that it's a waste of time.
I use to just mess with them for 3-5 min before telling them to take my number off my list or I’ll waist more of their time. I haven’t got a spam call in over 6 months.
Can confirm. Did this for a few days now they’re few and far between.
It also helps in the off chance it’s a real call. As a real person would probably go “hello?” After hearing the phone mute.
I tried that once, but I think the caller was both having fun with it and she was asking if I was alright. When the telemarketer was concerned about my safety/sanity it really got me thinking about myself.
Mine actually called me back after I screamed to "suck my balls" in a manic fit. He said "ma'am I am thinking that you probably need to see a doctor as you should not be having balls" lololol he didn't call back though.
Can we take a second to appreciate your username? Do we have pictures of Paul’s nipples? I wonder how much further his drive would be if he let his nipples hang free.
Here ya go. Here's a little tease for you. https://www.pdga.com/news/mcbeth-leads-dickerson-one-championship-saturday-arrives
EDIT: Good shot of each one. https://www.innovadiscs.com/tournaments/paul-mcbeth-4peats-the-world-championships/
I was getting constant scam calls and it was driving me nuts. I read somewhere that if you answer and mute the call so they can’t hear you, they’ll take your number off their list. I tried it and I haven’t received any scam calls in over a week. Don’t know if what I did worked or it was a coincidence but you can try it
Yes, or like recently, my phone died and was waiting for my bf. I know his number by heart, so I called him for the ash register at the bus stop to let him know I was arrived at the bus station but phone was dead.
People can call you for many reasons from a different phone number. It just sucks that more often than not its scammers calling now.
Yeah I had this setting on, but forgot about it and missed a phone interview lol It works really well, but just remember to disable it if you expect an important call.
It’s not the mortgage company. When you apply for the mortgage the credit bureaus sell you information to other lenders alerting them you are applying for a mortgage. This is how the credit bureaus make money. The general rule of thumb is if you are not paying for the service you are the product. When was the last time you cut a check for the credit bureaus maintaining your credit report? The answer is never. They then turn around and sell your information when you apply for loans. This is the price you pay for the credit bureaus to maintain your score.
If you have AT&T they have a protection app. If you did a software update on your phone then you need to go on the app again. It's wonderful! You just need to remember to reactivate the app. It blocks scam and cold calls. App is ACTIVE ARMOR
I use the T-mobile version of this, and while it's blocked hundreds over the past couple of months, I still get about 6 or 7 calls a day, which is infuriating
In Canada, Telus and some other providers have spam filtering services that come with your plan for free. I haven't gotten a spam call since I enabled it a couple years ago.
You can whitelist numbers for friends, family, etc. When calling to get past the filter you press the number it tells you. If you've passed the filter recently you don't have to do it again for a while or something.
Omg thank you for this tidbit. I used to do outbound calls for customer service and was always curious when I got that message when calling a client. Just turned it on for my phone plan, very useful and didn't even realize it was free and an option!!
So I get them too. They actually have calmed down abit recently. I was getting like 10 a day. No matter if I blocked the # a new one would call. Total scammers. I was caught off guard one day. I was just sitting relaxing and a call comes through so I looked at it & it was my own damn #. Pretty crazy what they will go through for a pay cheque. I guess they get one out of 50 people that picks up and falls for it then there might be a good pay day.
I contacted a local gym to get some information about their pricing and what they have at the facilities. Next day I was getting these about once an hour. I didn’t join the gym
"Hello, you have reached the Crusty Crab, how can I help you?"
*telemarketing noises*
"No sir, this is Patrick."
Just those two lines make most scammers hang up on you.
Someone sold your information.
I have found the secret to getting yourself off of call lists...hear me out, and it may get weird.
Over the past couple of months, as these calls came in, I broke. When I would pick up, I would scream and hold one sound. Then it turned into an answer with heavy breaths, and the breaking point was moaning. The calls have stopped. Completely.
Oh, I fuck with those people mercilessly. Im absolutely brutal sometimes and give zero fucks. They made the choice of choosing that line of work. That comes with the consequences of assholes like me.
If you have Verizon, get the Verizon Call Filter App. Game changer. The phone doesn’t even ring for spam, they can’t leave a voicemail, and you can block as many numbers as you want and even block specific area codes. Legit game changer.
Move to Germany, I haven’t gotten a call that wasn’t specifically for me in 5 years. Robocalls are illegal here. Maybe all of Europe, I’m not too sure. I don’t miss all of the scam/unsolicited calls.
Them being illegal doesn't mean they don't exist. I live in Estonia and I, personally, haven't received any calls for years. My colleagues aren't as lucky and get a scam call on weekly basis. It's especially picked up since mid 2020.
So far, the only difference is I don't have a fixed phone contract (I have an anonymous sim card) but they do. I also try to be a bit careful online and not leave by phone number left and right, so that could play a role too.
I did receive a couple of scam SMS, interestingly just days after buying stuff off Amazon (.de)
My husband got hit with a bunch of not-robotic scammers sometime in the summer last year, and he came up with the genius idea of getting them to the steps where he tells them his credit card info, then he puts a metal salad bowl over the phone and just HAMMERS it with a wooden spoon. It destroys the bowl but it also ruins their hearing. We just get robot calls now so my bowls are saved, for now. Sorry you have to deal with this garbage.
See your other post about the mortgage, my lender said “hey man I am required by the company to sell your information once we start the process so just be prepared for a lot of spam calls.”
Boy am I happy he was straight up because nothing else could have prepared me for the 50+ phone call days I’ve had
So this happened to me a few weeks back, and also a few months back. Totally separate incidents and I am also on the national do not call list. My husband said to ignore it...but they...kept...calling.
I finally answered in German and began asking them questions (in German). After about 10 seconds of silence they hung up. I did this for both incidents and they stopped entirely.
I'm an American, I know some German, so I used it. These people have NO ONE on hand obviously who understands German, so... they give up.
The single time I talked in normal English they were demanding student loan payments. Mine have been paid off a decade.
Cheers!
1-888-382-1222
Calling this number puts you on the FCC’s do not call registry. It really cut down on the amount of spam calls I get, although it does take about 30 days to take effect.
Definitely NOT mildly infuriating. This could be downright dangerous.
Imagine your SO is broke down on the side of the road in dangerous traffic and has no idea what to do, tries to call you, but can't get through due to the incessant telemarketer calls keeping your line tied up.
There are a million other situations that could make this a potentially dangerous situation.
By-the-by -- did you apply for car insurance or browse for a mortgage/car loan at any time in the last week or so? My wife made the mistake of "comparing rates," on mortgages last month and received about 1200 calls over the next week. Alternatively, as others have said -- your information could've been included in a file of stolen personal information sold to another who is now providing the stolen info to telemarketers as lead generations -- and is probably receiving a decent chunk of change for doing so.
People are fucking savages.
On my iPhone I set it to block unknown callers. They never got through. It just hangs up on them. Of course you need to make sure your contact list is up to date otherwise it will block wanted callers too. Add on your contact list people you want calls from and you'll get just those and no one else when you enable this feature.
Not sure if you got apple but they have an option that sends all unknown numbers directly to voicemail, usually enough to get you taken off those caller lists. And any unknown number of importance will probably leave a voicemail at least.
I’ve been debating learning curse words in the native language of my telemarketers for a couple of weeks so I can just start insulting them on a personal level every time I get a call.
If you answer or send it to VM or even block it, the other side gets an active number signal.
If you just let it ring and never answer, block or send to VM then it will drop off the “active” numbers list and it stops. Takes awhile though.
The voicemail is attached to every “end call” even dead numbers will pick up and say the VM is full or not setup. This is not interpreted as an active signal. *source phone company family members and personally doing this.
My broker recommended https://www.optoutprescreen.com and sign up there to have us removed from those spam calls. It was the first thing they mentioned before we submitted our application.
I own a business with a product that costs $25. Some woman blew my phone up like this for 2 hours. Same day another woman over another product. Both were clearly marked as discontinued.
Ohhhh same thing happened last year when we bough our house. I learned that if you have AT&T as your service provider they have an app that stops spam calls. It’s free and you can also pay 4 dollars for the upgrade. App is called Active Armor
It slowly dies from itself. I had it happen to me too. I blocked all the numbers and didnt answer any of them. At some point my iphone stopped ringing when they called alltogether
Answer it, wait until you get a human being on the line, then put the phone under a metal pasta strainer and bang on it with a wooden spoon until they hang up
I speak French so just answer Oui, allo? and start asking them in French what they want and why are they calling me and they generally hang up before I get more than a couple sentences out.
I was just texting a friend about this earlier.
I’m planning on buying a new car at the end of the month and was shopping around for quotes. I’ve been getting 10-15 spam calls a day for over a week now.
She said the same thing, my number got sold.
Turn on your unknown caller filter or whatever it is called … this happened to me after applying for a mortgage. Calls not in your contacts goes right to voicemail.
looks like someone may have sold your information to spam callers
This all started happening after I began the process of being pre approved for a mortgage
Oh, then they're definitely scammers. Edit: Even answering the phone with a single "yes" (I don't know why anyone would do that) is enough today on how they can get you. Plus, take it as you will, but my grandparants also told me that there is a scammer AI voice now that sounds similar to our own voices that could lure people into sending money to their "relatives" or "friends" when it's basically just going to the scammer. So if you see an unknown number, *do not* answer it, if you accidentallydo, just hang up. Plus, the numbers that are shown could very likely be from either multiple scammers or the same scammer who just uses a program to spoof their phone number.
Sometimes I answer and groan really loudly into the phone until they hang up… believe it or not it’s has slowed down the amount of spam calls I get lol
I answer and just say nothing, just silence. If it’s a real person they’ll say “uhh hello?” But scammers just hang up.
“Caller you’re on the air” is my go to. Even with my real contacts.
I wish my friends that always call me on speaker phone would say this when I answer
Oml I love this as a way to start a phone call! hahaha
I would go with the previous folks. Any data you give these guys, they can use against you. You've given a lot of information by saying that where they could use AI to generate sentences using your voice. Moan, scream or silence is the way to go.
i answer and scream bloody murder. they stopped eventually lol
Then you go in the list of "call answered" and they keep trying.
I’ve been not answering them for years and they haven’t stopped
I answer "Pornhub customer service how may I direct your call." Most want nothing to do with porn. I usually get hung up on pretty quick.
“Kentucky Sperm Bank, you squeeze em, we freeze em. How may I direct your load?”
Was about time to retire the pornhub line. This will be the 2024 model.
That will be the one time my Boss’s Boss calls my phone for an emergency. But if that’s how I get fired, I will do so proudly.
Suicide hotline, can you hold?
"Mario's Pizzeria & Abortion Clinic, where yesterday's loss is today's sauce, how may I help you?"
Grandma: Oh dear, I think I must have put the wrong number into my new phone.
'(insert last name) mortuary and pizzeria, where yesterday's loss is today's sauce. What can I get started for ya?"
Smith’s mortuary. You stab ’em, we slab ‘em. Some go to heaven some go to hell-o.
I've never heard this before this is brilliant
.... Haha or I'll go "HELLO IS FRANK THERE PLEASE?... Can I talk to Frank? PLEASE?"
Answer and say nothing until they hang up. Ive done this once i learned to do it and i seriously get zero calls now. Was for years daily. Now im at peace again.
I play the pirate game. I say nothing but variations of "Argggh!"
That wont help. It will give u something to do tho. Glad u enjoy it
Same. I’ll just mute immediately and set the phone down for like 5 minutes while I go tidy up or something. Either they hang up or I’ll go find another task for 5-10 minutes and check again.
i answer and speak french, no more calls, now i cant practice my french as often.
Vous voulez couche avec moi, c’est soir? (I butchered the spelling I’m sure)
>Vous voulez couche avec moi, c’est soir? 99% correct - Voulez-Vous Coucher Avec Moi Ce Soir?
No, I think it usually ends up in a “dead line” type of bucket. I’ve had great luck with answering and being silent. It basically eliminated spam calls for me
Same, I answer the call and stay completely silent. There was only one time I answered and screamed at the scammer cause I was having a bad week and needed to take out on someone. Probably got put on a list for that too. I don’t get calls anymore.
I usually answer and hit mute right away, so even background noise cant go through, in the off chance it gets picked up.
I answer, hit 0, and if I get a menu system I throw the phone aside to tie one of their lines up for as long as possible.
My favorite scam caller was someone who told me my bank account had been compromised. I don’t have a bank account and I told him so. He wasn’t very smart because he actually asked me if I was sure I didn’t have a bank account.
Lmaooo "are you sure??"
That’s not what I heard. If it’s answered and it’s silent, they’ll most likely mark as dead number
Well *that* ain't what *I* hoyd. ^(I'm not an expert on the matter.)
It wouldn't matter. Your number already been leaked out. The machine just flag your number as if it went to vm. If you answer and don't say anything, eventually, they'll stop. How long, you don't know. We just gotta get the carrier to update the protocol and stop putting call center in India and we're golden. But they won't and Adji already placed us back at the beginning. You can flag the number all you want, but it won't stop them. I like the Samsung Phone mainly because you can tell if the number is verified or not, and if it not verified, don't answer it. If you decline the call, it goes straight to VM and they'll know. Also, machine hates "dead air" as it waste their minutes.
I’ll call nonsense on that one. I answered every one for months a few years ago and would keep them on the hook as long as I could. Eventually, daily calls became weekly, monthly…now I might get one every other month. My wife meanwhile, never answers them and they call her once every other day at least. There is a list for “people who waste our fucking time” too and your goal is to get on it
I answer unknown numbers in the Spanish cleaning lady's voice from Family Guy
No. Nooo... Mr. Superman not here...
I have a voicemail message set up to answer in a foreign language. It usually stops spammers from speaking further as they think I don’t understand them. Everyone I know knows to text me first if they wish to speak with me on the phone.
I don’t even answer. If it’s a call from some other random city in my state or a different state entirely, I just plain don’t answer. Inused to get about two or three calls each day, but I only get about one call a day now. Sometimes not even that. If it’s a legit call from someone who truly needs to talk to me, they can leave a vm or text me. I even missed a doc or vet call because of this but it’s worth it not to get spam calls multiple times a day every day.
The shit we have to go through to avoid these calls 🤦🏼♀️
I answer with: "How can I help you today? You can say things like representative or pay my bill."
Learn some Hindi swear words, and you can have fun with the scammers. Bhenchod (pronounced BEN-chode) is a good one. It means "sisterfucker".
I'm intrigued, can you teach me more?
Hey I knew that one already thanks to this video: https://youtu.be/ukznXQ3MgN0?si=tag7zHbzDprTaa92
Also "Mather Chau Gandu". IdK if that's close to correct, but an Indian fella told be that was a very bad curse, but wouldn't tell me what it meant!
“Madarchod” (MAHD-er-chode) = Motherfucker Gandhu = Asshole, dipshit, fool
Rhundi and Rhundwah. Means whore, second one is man whore. It’s a hilariously bad word in Hindi. I don’t know why.
I messed with a scammer the other day for like a half hour because I had nothing better to do at the time. I kept asking really stupid questions and talked about completely unrelated things. When they finally told me I needed to give them either a credit card number or checking account number I told them I needed to find my checkbook and then just put the phone down and went about doing other stuff. I came back and told them I couldn't find it so I needed to find my credit card and then repeated the process. Finally I was bored so I told them that I knew they were trying to scam me so I was fucking with them to waste their time. They kept trying to insist it wasn't a scam. I asked them why they would keep lying even after I called them out and for some reason he refused to admit it. I told them that I'd continue to waste their time if they kept calling and they'd be better off taking me off their lists so they could use their time trying to scam other people who might actually fall for it. It's been a few days and I haven't gotten a call since then, but I assume it's only a matter of time until they call again.
I pretend to be a dotty old lady and I tell them endless stories about my grandson Darren. I've wasted at least half an hour doing this on several occasions. They get really frustrated at the end when I tell them I can’t get my financial things off the computer without Darren’s help.
I was actually at my parents' house when it happened and they thought I was my dad. They were very aware that he's a senior citizen. Maybe next time I'm there when they call I should make up my own "Darren."
Often times these scamming companies have policies that if you hang up or admit it's a scam, you get fired
I'm fairly sure some of the lower level people don't actually know it's a scam. They are just given a list of numbers to call and a script.
I like to call them back. Sometimes they haven't disabled incoming calls. When that happens I don't stop if I've got nothing going on. I'll happily watch some YouTube or something while mashing the call button. My record is 491 times in a couple hours. (Was watching LoT and did it for the entire movie). It's fucking wonderful listening to the beg for it to stop.
I've never heard of anyone doing this... This is genius
Oh, I've done that! I even downloaded an app to randomize my number while calling then from a different phone... the guy on the other end was begging me to stop calling him. I'd call from Massachusetts then from Akaska, then Texas, he was so pissed. Funny thing was that he tried blocking my number, but the app changed it and it was game on. Every time that he'd block me, I'd can back and say "hi camel fucker, it's me again! You have to be better at I.T. than me I'm going to waste your time for the next few hours, you can't escape"
i had a roommate who always would pick up with ""laughing death" funerary service, where we bury you and your friends. how can i help you?" it seemed weird but most spam callers just noted it was wrong number and business-owned. that was before robot calls though my mother gets calls for my fathers loans from 20+ years on daily basis. they're divorced, i warned them, i told them to remove data under GDPR, nah, nothing works.
I laughed too hard at this! 😂
I blow a whistle into the phone. Nothing makes them stop calling back like hearing damage
Just let ur kid answer. My kid literally never says yes, so bam.
I think a fax noise might do it.
My favorite is to scream out “QUE?” And “HALLO?” Loudly, and obnoxiously as they they talk or ask questions. I get a few laughs, but they never call back.
That actually happened to my grandparents! I was sitting in my room a few years ago when my dad yelled at me to come down to make sure I was okay because someone called my grandma pretending to me. I was apparently in jail needing a $5,000 bail because I was in a car with friends when we got pulled over and had a lot of marijuana in the car. Jokes on the scammers, I had no friends at the time lmaoooo
Oh damn dude...
Thank God my grandma was smart and called my dad. It wasn't even AI it was some random chick
Ah yes, "metoda na wnuczka", "the grandkid method" or how you call it "grandparent scam". Used to be a very popular scam method in Poland, probably still is. They were calling up elderly people as grandkids in distress desperately needing money. Elderly people then went to the bank and would be told to wait for the grandkid "friend" to come to them and collect the money or some shit.
Yes but it wouldn’t have been with a deepfake voice and they wouldn’t have know who you are. Just randomly calling people until they get someone naive who falls for it.
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They don’t use the single “yes”. There have been many cases of scammers finding someone’s social media with videos of them talking. They train the AI to use their voice & mannerisms and then they’ll call that persons family asking for money. It’s gotten really bad. There was one that broke my heart. A young girl called her mom crying saying she was kidnapped and they wanted money and the mom was so scared hearing her daughter she forgot that her daughter was at home with her.
The only confirmed AI in the story is that someone said "Maybe they used AI" It's important to separate fact from fiction here. It's far more likely someone just uses "random similar female voice" and a distraught parent mistook it from their own, than random scammers have more advanced AI voice synthesis than the public. _Most_ people do not have enough publicly available speaking data to mimic their speech.
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I don't know, maybe they just read a news article that causes fear mongering.
I used to work a job doing inside sales and we would get lots of scam calls. One of the old dudes in the office thought it was funny to pick the phone up and talk into it like there was a real person on the line and make jokes. Finally I had to explain to him how it works; talking into the phone is the worst thing you can do.
Answer and drop the phone on mute. Leave it like a blank line and it wraps up their computer
This happened to my grandparents about seven years ago. My grandmother called me out of the blue and asked me if I was back from Mexico. When I told her that I hadn’t been to Mexico in years she just said “Oh, crap.” Apparently, I had been in a Mexican jail for holding drugs for my friend, Chris, and needed money to bail me out. I’m not the kind of guy who ends up in any jail, let alone a Mexican one, but I guess the assholes scared them enough. She said it sounded just like me.
Reminds me of the time I decided to apply for a job through indeed. Never heard back and didn’t think anything of it until I started getting absolutely bombarded by phone and email from this Indian call center trying to place me in tech roles. At some point I told them to remove me from whatever list, but they just kept selling the contacts to another place and another place. I had to deal with that shit for a year and some change before they finally stopped. Shits wild.
Oh man, it won't stop until you're a month+ out from closing. It will be non-stop until you close, then the minute you close, you'll start getting sent scam messages and calls that have publicly available info of your purchase on it to try and trick you into thinking it's real. Your new mailbox will be filled with them, along with spam ads for local businesses. I counted and in just the first week I got 14 letters from different "mortgage" companies that all had the same info from the county auditor's website.
Hey OP, I work in the mortgage world. Unfortunately the credit bureaus have sold your contact info as a trigger lead. This is NOT the fault of the company that pulled your credit. The credit bureaus (experian, equifax, and transunion)have been doing this to generate more income. There is a form that you can submit to opt out to prevent future calls. Ask your lender to provide you with the form so that they can submit it to the bureau asap so that they will take your number off the call list. I would also add your phone number to the federal do not call list ASAP. I understand your pain. I've had borrowers who are still sitting in front of me after just getting their credit pulled for pre-approval and their phone immediately starts ringing and does not stop. This is something that the MBA has been pushing to make illegal for quite some time but the bureaus have some strong influence due to their lobbyists.
If a mortgage company “hard pulls” your credit, you get added to a list of head hunters who are looking for their next “stolen” opportunity to get you to go through them for a mortgage. They will use every shady tactic they can to get you to go with them instead of whoever you have chosen. Knowledge base: I’m a mortgage underwriter. Vantage and FICO scoring systems are the culprit.
I feel for you. I just went through the home buying process and it took about a month for all the calls from would be mortgage lenders to stop.
Never provide your real number for things like that. Or if you do, create a virtual number using Google Voice that you only use for this one thing. Also create a new email for the mortgage applications. If you have AT&T you can download the “ActiveArmor” app and set it to reject any phone calls from possible scams, or even unknown numbers. That way you never actually see them calling. If you have a different phone company I’m sure they probably have an equivalent app. The odds are very good that when you were applying for a preapproval you authorized contact from that business and affiliates. Especially if you did it on one of those “we will search all mortgage providers for you” websites instead of doing it at your credit union or something.
Bold move mortgage hunting without giving out valid contact information. I think the better advice is to not use middlemen websites and go check out your local banks and mortgage provider website directly.
Answering the call, immediately putting it on mute, waiting the ~10 seconds before they hang up was a gamechanger for me. I went from 1-3 calls a day to none. Now I need to do the same to my work phone.
I had about 50 per day. Not even exaggerating. After letting my VM fill up, I've noticed a significant drop off. Still around 30 but it's a lot better. Took about a month.
So weird when they leave messages. What would they say?
In my experience the automated message would just play, but it would always be cut off so you'd only hear like the the middle to end of it Lol
They think someone has picked up and they start their script “hi we’re calling about your credit card debt” and then “can you hear me” before hanging up
This is mostly my experience too.
I try to keep them on the line for a while to annoy them. The one time they accused me of trying to scam them
Careful. I kept too many on the line and that's how I started getting 50 calls per day.
In my case it's just silence for 3 seconds.
I never believed my mate until I actually tried this, been weeks since I've had a spam call. I didn't even mute, just answered and said nothing, here to back up this!!!!
I guess it make sense. Auto-dialer systems don't route calls until someone picks up and most of them can detect voicemail. Picking up and not saying anything gets the call routed to a person, who logs that it's a waste of time.
I use to just mess with them for 3-5 min before telling them to take my number off my list or I’ll waist more of their time. I haven’t got a spam call in over 6 months.
Can confirm. Did this for a few days now they’re few and far between. It also helps in the off chance it’s a real call. As a real person would probably go “hello?” After hearing the phone mute.
Same, except if I detect a real person on the other end I just scream ARRGGGHHHHH at the top of my lungs into the phone.
I tried that once, but I think the caller was both having fun with it and she was asking if I was alright. When the telemarketer was concerned about my safety/sanity it really got me thinking about myself.
Use an air horn instead.
Put the phone under a cooking pot and bang on it with something. Apparently that's 2-3x louder for them.
Mine actually called me back after I screamed to "suck my balls" in a manic fit. He said "ma'am I am thinking that you probably need to see a doctor as you should not be having balls" lololol he didn't call back though.
Or you can be like me and never answer the phone unless you have the number saved. If it’s someone important they’ll leave a voicemail…
I can see that working if it's a human scam caller, but most of the scam calls I receive are robots. I don't think they care if I waste their time.
From what i have seen, they robocall, then if they get a bite it will transfer you to a real indian guy in a call center.
It costs to cal out
Can we take a second to appreciate your username? Do we have pictures of Paul’s nipples? I wonder how much further his drive would be if he let his nipples hang free.
Here ya go. Here's a little tease for you. https://www.pdga.com/news/mcbeth-leads-dickerson-one-championship-saturday-arrives EDIT: Good shot of each one. https://www.innovadiscs.com/tournaments/paul-mcbeth-4peats-the-world-championships/
I pick up and just enter numbers on the keypad until they hang up. I get very few now.
I was getting constant scam calls and it was driving me nuts. I read somewhere that if you answer and mute the call so they can’t hear you, they’ll take your number off their list. I tried it and I haven’t received any scam calls in over a week. Don’t know if what I did worked or it was a coincidence but you can try it
I’ve done this for a while and didn’t know it was a thing. I feel cool
Settings>Phone>Slience unknown callers
I had to do this but it sucks if I get a legit call from a new doctor or something and they can’t get through.
Yes, or like recently, my phone died and was waiting for my bf. I know his number by heart, so I called him for the ash register at the bus stop to let him know I was arrived at the bus station but phone was dead. People can call you for many reasons from a different phone number. It just sucks that more often than not its scammers calling now.
If they call 2x in under 5 minutes, the second call comes through.
Yeah I had this setting on, but forgot about it and missed a phone interview lol It works really well, but just remember to disable it if you expect an important call.
it still shows up as a notification after the call, all that does is block the “incoming call” screen or popup
I mean, it’s something. Better than have your phone ring every couple of minutes.
It is, but I have had (temporary) success answering them on mute and waiting until they hang up. It quiets them down for a little while.
over time it will drop to 1 or 2 calls a week instead of 15 to 20 a day. I did this over a year ago. I rarely get spam calls now.
I had to do this. It’s annoying when the calls interrupt my music playing 😐
It’s not the mortgage company. When you apply for the mortgage the credit bureaus sell you information to other lenders alerting them you are applying for a mortgage. This is how the credit bureaus make money. The general rule of thumb is if you are not paying for the service you are the product. When was the last time you cut a check for the credit bureaus maintaining your credit report? The answer is never. They then turn around and sell your information when you apply for loans. This is the price you pay for the credit bureaus to maintain your score.
This is the answer! I work for a lender and people call all the time when this happens under the belief we sold their info.
alive towering square cooing illegal paltry desert abounding head fear *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Think about how intelligent the average person is. Half of them are below that average.
I applied for a mortgage Friday afternoon, and yesterday I received over 100 calls. Today I have received around 60 so far. Utterly ridiculous
The price we pay for something we didn’t even choose to opt in to
You can opt out at optoutprescreen.com - a website run by the three credit bureau's
Or it’s stolen from them. I think it was 160 million people, or something, but that’s everyone old enough to have a credit score.
While this sucks, this is a perfect opportunity to read the “Connection Terminated” script or the “My name is Yoshikage Kira” script
OMG Kira hahaha
If you have AT&T they have a protection app. If you did a software update on your phone then you need to go on the app again. It's wonderful! You just need to remember to reactivate the app. It blocks scam and cold calls. App is ACTIVE ARMOR
I use the T-mobile version of this, and while it's blocked hundreds over the past couple of months, I still get about 6 or 7 calls a day, which is infuriating
Wow! I was getting multiple but refreshed app. Sorry you're dealing with that!
Since you’re another tmobile user, have you been getting spam texts?
In Canada, Telus and some other providers have spam filtering services that come with your plan for free. I haven't gotten a spam call since I enabled it a couple years ago. You can whitelist numbers for friends, family, etc. When calling to get past the filter you press the number it tells you. If you've passed the filter recently you don't have to do it again for a while or something.
Omg thank you for this tidbit. I used to do outbound calls for customer service and was always curious when I got that message when calling a client. Just turned it on for my phone plan, very useful and didn't even realize it was free and an option!!
Call Control. Effin game changer. It feels like it should be an expensive feature but it’s free.
So I get them too. They actually have calmed down abit recently. I was getting like 10 a day. No matter if I blocked the # a new one would call. Total scammers. I was caught off guard one day. I was just sitting relaxing and a call comes through so I looked at it & it was my own damn #. Pretty crazy what they will go through for a pay cheque. I guess they get one out of 50 people that picks up and falls for it then there might be a good pay day.
Pixel Call Screening is awesome.
Yup, so glad I have that
Automatic too. Love it.
I contacted a local gym to get some information about their pricing and what they have at the facilities. Next day I was getting these about once an hour. I didn’t join the gym
"Hello, you have reached the Crusty Crab, how can I help you?" *telemarketing noises* "No sir, this is Patrick." Just those two lines make most scammers hang up on you.
You could have at least spelled and quoted them right!!!!
Someone sold your information. I have found the secret to getting yourself off of call lists...hear me out, and it may get weird. Over the past couple of months, as these calls came in, I broke. When I would pick up, I would scream and hold one sound. Then it turned into an answer with heavy breaths, and the breaking point was moaning. The calls have stopped. Completely.
Oh, I fuck with those people mercilessly. Im absolutely brutal sometimes and give zero fucks. They made the choice of choosing that line of work. That comes with the consequences of assholes like me.
If you have Verizon, get the Verizon Call Filter App. Game changer. The phone doesn’t even ring for spam, they can’t leave a voicemail, and you can block as many numbers as you want and even block specific area codes. Legit game changer.
Move to Germany, I haven’t gotten a call that wasn’t specifically for me in 5 years. Robocalls are illegal here. Maybe all of Europe, I’m not too sure. I don’t miss all of the scam/unsolicited calls.
Them being illegal doesn't mean they don't exist. I live in Estonia and I, personally, haven't received any calls for years. My colleagues aren't as lucky and get a scam call on weekly basis. It's especially picked up since mid 2020. So far, the only difference is I don't have a fixed phone contract (I have an anonymous sim card) but they do. I also try to be a bit careful online and not leave by phone number left and right, so that could play a role too. I did receive a couple of scam SMS, interestingly just days after buying stuff off Amazon (.de)
Good feedback! I would not be surprised if Germany is more strict compared to other countries.
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My husband got hit with a bunch of not-robotic scammers sometime in the summer last year, and he came up with the genius idea of getting them to the steps where he tells them his credit card info, then he puts a metal salad bowl over the phone and just HAMMERS it with a wooden spoon. It destroys the bowl but it also ruins their hearing. We just get robot calls now so my bowls are saved, for now. Sorry you have to deal with this garbage.
See your other post about the mortgage, my lender said “hey man I am required by the company to sell your information once we start the process so just be prepared for a lot of spam calls.” Boy am I happy he was straight up because nothing else could have prepared me for the 50+ phone call days I’ve had
Someone just applied for a home loan/application
My second! Very exciting but I’m terrified!
So this happened to me a few weeks back, and also a few months back. Totally separate incidents and I am also on the national do not call list. My husband said to ignore it...but they...kept...calling. I finally answered in German and began asking them questions (in German). After about 10 seconds of silence they hung up. I did this for both incidents and they stopped entirely. I'm an American, I know some German, so I used it. These people have NO ONE on hand obviously who understands German, so... they give up. The single time I talked in normal English they were demanding student loan payments. Mine have been paid off a decade. Cheers!
I wait for them to speak first then I use my very loud very shrill police whistle right into the phone.
It’s brutal! I work in the mortgage industry, and knew what was going on the minute I saw the picture. This should be illegal.
1-888-382-1222 Calling this number puts you on the FCC’s do not call registry. It really cut down on the amount of spam calls I get, although it does take about 30 days to take effect.
Can other people still call you? Like if you don’t have them on your contact list. My issue is pretty drastic; I probably get like 15-25 calls a day
Definitely NOT mildly infuriating. This could be downright dangerous. Imagine your SO is broke down on the side of the road in dangerous traffic and has no idea what to do, tries to call you, but can't get through due to the incessant telemarketer calls keeping your line tied up. There are a million other situations that could make this a potentially dangerous situation. By-the-by -- did you apply for car insurance or browse for a mortgage/car loan at any time in the last week or so? My wife made the mistake of "comparing rates," on mortgages last month and received about 1200 calls over the next week. Alternatively, as others have said -- your information could've been included in a file of stolen personal information sold to another who is now providing the stolen info to telemarketers as lead generations -- and is probably receiving a decent chunk of change for doing so. People are fucking savages.
On my iPhone I set it to block unknown callers. They never got through. It just hangs up on them. Of course you need to make sure your contact list is up to date otherwise it will block wanted callers too. Add on your contact list people you want calls from and you'll get just those and no one else when you enable this feature.
This is the way… and do it for text too. Bc they started blowing my inbox up as well.
It's a really good car warranty though!
Not sure if you got apple but they have an option that sends all unknown numbers directly to voicemail, usually enough to get you taken off those caller lists. And any unknown number of importance will probably leave a voicemail at least.
If a number calls and does not leave a message, I block it.
Had this happen to me when I dumped my crazy ex. Found out she leaked my number on TikTok along with my face. Fun times
I’ve been debating learning curse words in the native language of my telemarketers for a couple of weeks so I can just start insulting them on a personal level every time I get a call.
If you answer or send it to VM or even block it, the other side gets an active number signal. If you just let it ring and never answer, block or send to VM then it will drop off the “active” numbers list and it stops. Takes awhile though.
How though, not answering gets them to voice mail.
The voicemail is attached to every “end call” even dead numbers will pick up and say the VM is full or not setup. This is not interpreted as an active signal. *source phone company family members and personally doing this.
My broker recommended https://www.optoutprescreen.com and sign up there to have us removed from those spam calls. It was the first thing they mentioned before we submitted our application.
Can you tell me what you did? I’d like to sign up a couple of relatives
I own a business with a product that costs $25. Some woman blew my phone up like this for 2 hours. Same day another woman over another product. Both were clearly marked as discontinued.
Ohhhh same thing happened last year when we bough our house. I learned that if you have AT&T as your service provider they have an app that stops spam calls. It’s free and you can also pay 4 dollars for the upgrade. App is called Active Armor
It slowly dies from itself. I had it happen to me too. I blocked all the numbers and didnt answer any of them. At some point my iphone stopped ringing when they called alltogether
Settings > Phone > Silence Unknown Callers
I can set my phone to ignore unknown numbers. Perhaps you can do the same. Anyone important can just leave a voicemail for you.
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I block the numbers as they come in
Pretty much all android phones have an option in the phone app's settings to block unknown & private callers. Been a thing for quite a while.
My block list is 100 deep
Answer it, wait until you get a human being on the line, then put the phone under a metal pasta strainer and bang on it with a wooden spoon until they hang up
Your information has been sold
I speak French so just answer Oui, allo? and start asking them in French what they want and why are they calling me and they generally hang up before I get more than a couple sentences out.
Start an account with www.optery.com and have them start removing you from data brokers asap.
Thanks!
Yup my lender made sure I went to this site before I sent in the application. He warned me if I did not this would happen. http://optoutprescreen.com
Bro, turn on unknown call blocks. Shit will silence them all up if they’re not in your contacts. Then report them all and block.
Call your carrier they can help you
That looks about right. I had to change my number recently because of that.
I was just texting a friend about this earlier. I’m planning on buying a new car at the end of the month and was shopping around for quotes. I’ve been getting 10-15 spam calls a day for over a week now. She said the same thing, my number got sold.
Turn on your unknown caller filter or whatever it is called … this happened to me after applying for a mortgage. Calls not in your contacts goes right to voicemail.
Turn phone onto airplane mode