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Even though “supposedly” the industry is trying to clamp down on spam calls, I get more, not less. Lately I’ve received calls where clearly the spam t
[See the full post at: Got a cell phone? Are you getting more spam calls?]
Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher
I get none but my AIO printer/fax does 🙂
Android12 & Samsungs AntiSpam-Service works great.
∅spam, and servicing people like healthcare and government and normal businesses are put through with a notice who is calling. So never again a lost call that was forwarded to voicemail. No need to make the addressbook inmense big.
I can imaging that the mobile-telephone-service provider may be leading in this feature; that remains a question to me.
Does anyone actually do business with spam callers?
It would seem to be a simple solution that if everyone would just stop buying from them, they will have to stop calling… sigh…
Windows 10 Pro 22H2
I agree who is falling for these scams and are the bad guys actually making any money??? Now that being said, I believe there are certain people who are vulnerable – such as the elderly. They do fall victim easily. But I wonder is that enough to keep all these bad guys going?? Donna
I don’t have my iPhone blocking calls. So, I do get a number of calls that ATT has decided it is a “Spam Risk” and I ignore it. Other calls with numbers that I don’t recognize are ignored.
I recently helped a friend with some out-patient surgery where they required a driver be present to release her. Because I don’t pick up unknown calls, I had the facility tell me their phone number and I entered it in my phone. I then received the ‘take her home’ call and everything went smoothly.
If I get an unknown call, I figure that if its important, there will be voice mail left and I then return the call. If it’s someone important, then I enter them in my contacts.
I agree who is falling for these scams and are the bad guys actually making any money??? Now that being said, I believe there are certain people who are vulnerable – such as the elderly. They do fall victim easily. But I wonder is that enough to keep all these bad guys going?? Donna
Look up Jim Browning on youtube and watch some of his videos.. You’ll see just how many people they DO manage to scam (nearly all elderly), and how much money they make.
Many of these elderly are boomers with literally millions sat in a single bank account. These scammers mostly live overseas in India and regularly scam hundreds of thousands of dollars per day. They have designer suits, flash cars, fancy hotels & holidays etc, and that’s just the low level ones! Remember dollars go FAR in India. The call centres are massive with huge office floors full of scammers.
The owners have a huge organised crime business going, with many scam call centres all linked up and collaborating. What was surprising is that there’s often an American or two that set the whole thing up from the start, too..
Regarding the dead air / hang-up calls, that’s due to there not being enough Indians in the call centre to actually answer the call. For the outgoing calls their dialer software just spams every number it can on whatever list of numbers they’ve purchased, then it routes it through (sometimes countries) to the call centre for someone to answer. As they’re just hoping for a “bite”, they have more calls ongoing than people to answer them.
Thanks Bob – I’m not naive but, it’s really distressing to know that so many of the vulnerable elderly are being scammed. It’s not just criminal, it’s sinful!! And you know, one day, Lord willing, we will all be elderly and more vulnerable. I’m not there yet (61), but we’ll see how well I do with the scams of my age!! I know not everyone will fall victim and hope I never do! But there are way too many organized online criminal operations these days, (hackers, scammers, etc.) Who knows what they will think of next to separate people from their money??? : (
Simple solution is to wait 2 or 3 seconds before saying “Hello”. Spammers have software that listens for you to answer and then it connects you to a person or a recorded message plays. If you wait you will be rewarded with a satisfying click as their system hangs up, it may even mark your number as not worth calling again. This is why they never leave a voice mail. A real caller will wait longer than this for you to answer.
I’ve got a 4G “flip phone” that I keep in my dresser drawer 98% of the time. I have it mainly to take with me when I go out, mostly for emergency use. It stays turned off 99% of the time. Which brings me to the point/fact that on three occasions when I did turn it on (to check the battery level) a spam message came up. I haven’t given my cell phone number to anyone, and the phone was on less than five minutes!
The spammers are probably just using the list of number ranges assigned to your local 4G carrier, without actually knowing which numbers are assigned.
Those number ranges are public information and easily obtained.
As to why the SMS text messages popped up when you turned the phone on, they are asynchronous, and get queued up for the next time your mobile device is available “online” for message delivery.
Windows 10 Pro 22H2
I receive many spam calls but most are in the spam folder. Same for SMS. They always use a different phone number which looks like a local number but I suspect they can spoof Caller ID.
I have a landline, and I am getting fewer spam calls than a year ago, when there were several a day.
I also have a cell-phone that I keep mostly off and when I need to turn it on, I ignore all calls awaiting reply there, assuming these to be all spam, because I use it only in emergencies and in other very special circumstances, so very few people know my cell-phone number and everyone that knows me also knows better than to call me there, but to use email or call me on my land-line instead.
So I have no idea of how many spam calls I am getting in my cell-phone these days, but I assume that all calls awaiting reply there are spam. So far, with no ill effects after years of doing things this way. I have been a no-regular-cell-phone-user since they first became popular, in the early 1990s, when I declared their like to be a bane on humanity, a position I still maintain.
Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).
MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV
I have been a no-regular-cell-phone-user since they first became popular, in the early 1990s, when I declared their like to be a bane on humanity, a position I still maintain.
I respect that position, especially since the advent of smart phones, vs. the old school mobile phones.
In the 90’s I was required to carry a company issued Motorola bag phone for nights and weekends for on-call duties related to my IT role. Later on it was a Motorola flip phone. Cell phone technology gradually made pagers irrelevant.
So I suppose I was eventually conditioned to accept cell phones for staying in touch with work when away from the office, and then by extension, realized the convenience of staying in touch with family and friends while on the go. So I signed up for a cellular plan as soon as it was affordable. But that was in the early days, when folks still answered their phones, LOL!!!
Times have definitely changed since then!!!
Motorola bag phone image: 
Windows 10 Pro 22H2
Motorola bag phone
… was my first cell phone in the ’90’s. Cell towers were few and far between, but that bag phone had awesome range. If I’m not mistaken, the signal strength was rated 5 Watts.
With that power it’s a good thing that one didn’t need to hold that antenna next to the head while transmitting!
Windows 10 Pro 22H2
With that power it’s a good thing that one didn’t need to hold that antenna next to the head while transmitting!
It was only 3 watts; “Motorola introduced the Bag Phone line in 1988. These phones offered more durability and higher power output (up to 3 watts) than more conventional cell phones of the time, such as Motorola’s own DynaTAC and MicroTAC handheld phones, making them popular for truckers, boaters, and people in rural areas. Because of their durability, many examples of these phones are still in working order today.”
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