If someone calls, it's either a scam or someone has died. Either way I ain't answering.
More than once I thought that something horrible had happened because people called directly.
If you don't answer, they won't have died.
Schroedingers Ringtone
Or I'm already in the drive thru line and need to know if you want something and don't have time for texting. But that is rare. I plan ahead.
It's either a scam or a recruiter cold calling for me. If you know me you'll just text me.
Image Transcription:
A photo of Kermit the Frog from the Muppets sitting at a desk with his feet up, looking at a mobile phone he's holding in his right hand, with the caption: Me waiting for my phone to stop ringing because I don't use it for that
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Like email, it's been mostly ruined by spam and scams. There tends to be a lot more of them than here are genuine phone calls, excluding a few specific uses (like family members who use phone calls for everything).
Where are you guys at that you get so many scammers calling you? I've had that happen maybe once in my life.
Same for email by the way. I do get quite a few scam mails, but Gmail at least is very good at detecting them and sending them to the spam folder.
I get 4-5 a week in America. 4-5 a day if there's an election coming up.
I've had it happen in both Australia and Sweden a bunch. It tends to come in waves, probably because they've just managed to get around whatever new anti-spam measures are being added in, or are biding their time with spoofed numbers.
It tends to come once every few months or few weeks, and at its worst, I had one or two every day.
I get about 5-6 a week. It's worse when I pick up the phone, because I am waiting for a call from a number I might not know. Most recently I was acting as a job reference. Out of 20 calls, 2 were legit. The moment I started answering the phone, the spam calls increased to a few a day (they established I was a real number). The only way I get off these lists is to pretend I am another call center. Then they start to die down back to only a few a week (or whomever is calling from dozens of unknown caller id's that leave no voice mail or voice mail is the tail end of a recording).
I get 3 or 4 per year. The trick is to not give your phone number to any companies. Those rewards programs at restaurants and stores are selling your info straight to sketchy advertisers and scam call centers.
I used to get 40-50 spam calls a week, that's when I started screening my calls. Now I can't due to work, but get very few spam calls these days. It's ironic.
How are y'all getting so many spam calls? I have a Pixel 6 Pro with AT&T. I rarely if ever get any spam calls. If I do get a call from an unknown number, I have the option on my phone for Google to screen it using an automated system. It asks the caller for the purpose of their call, then transibes it to me in real time to let me decide if I want to answer. The vast majority of these calls end up hanging up without even responding to the Google prompt.
Use the down button
If it's a spam call, that let's them know that the number is active. They'll keep calling if you do that.
I just keep my phone on Airplane mode with Wi-fi On when I'm at home or at work
My phone has Wi-Fi calling and texting so that doesn't even work for me 😭
Forward all your calls to a third party number with an app, and then never open the app.
Can't you disable it
That’s the thing I hate about modern computers (phones). Music? Oh man, it’s ringing. Being creative? No sir, you got a call. Want to watch a tv show? Sorry, better luck next time. Jerkin’ yer gerkin’? Work is calling. Playing a little game? Well I’ll be damned, bzzzt bzzt. Wanna ignore it? Better wait for it to stop goddamn buzzing or they’ll know you sent them to voice mail. Listening to a podcast over Bluetooth? Better ring as loud as it can and interrupt until they give up.
Gah.
Back when I first got a sidekick, T-Mobile was offering a special data and text only plan just for that device and that's what I got. Not only was it cheaper, I didn't want to actually use the phone as a phone. I wanted it for texting and having access to the regular internet and not just bullshit WAP sites. It even had a telnet client so I could play MUDS while not at home! 😃
This is why I've disabled the ability for people to call me on my phone. If they must contact me through a phone call they can use my IP Relay number
Why not just turn off the ringer and let everything go to voicemail?
That's basically what I do. People can call me, but it'll never go through. Straight to my voicemail that tells them to email me, or contact my relay number
Why not save some money and just get a data-only plan? Or just ditch the plan altogether and use wifi?
Doctors offices, and I like having the ability to use a TTY service if I absolutely have to
