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Comment by cozzyd | Hacker News Reader

I imagine contact tracers would at least leave a voicemail? I always let numbers I don't recognize and aren't local (my cell phone number is out-of-state and spam calls usually originiate from that area code, not my current local) go to voicemail since I assume if they're important, they'll leave a voicemail.

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We already have contract tracing scams. I got a call claiming to be a contract tracing call asking for my SS# to tell me if I was at risk.

No clue how widespread this is, but I can't exactly blame people for assuming any call or voicemail they get is a scam, there are so many out there.

That's...both unsurprising and super disappointing.

FWIW I get lots of spam voicemails, to the point where the 'new voicemail' notification doesn't glass any confidence that a human called me.

I can, of course, listen to every voicemail, but that's not much better than just picking up the phone when I get a spam call.

I would say 95% of the voicemail is spam. The other 5% also sends me an email if they couldn't reach me.

So basically the only reason I check my voicemail is to get rid of the notification on my phone

It's funny how you remain completely unaware of the merits of your country's set of laws unless you hear from how things are elsewhere. We do have spam calls, but they are rare enough that people bonding over spam call infuriation might reference one that happened a year earlier.

yeah it's a total shitshow in the United States; I get 20-25 spam calls a week unless I shell out for a service to block them (TrapCall, Robocaller, etc.)

I'm sure there are bills in the works, but those same bills are likely bundled along with completely unrelated nonsense.

Use something like Google Voice that gives you a transcript. In fact, I bet Google could probably automatically flag spam voicemails if they tried.

Of course, you may not be comfortable with giving Google access to this data...

I have transcripts, but I still have to read them. You're right though, it's better than listening to the audio.

That only works if you have and check your voicemail. Many people either don't have a voicemail or don't bother ever setting it up. When the carriers start charging you a lot of money to have a voicemail, plenty of people will forgo it, and instead say things like "if it's important enough they'll call back" or "they'll send me a text message".

> Many people either don't have a voicemail or don't bother ever setting it up.

I actively turned my voicemail off completely.

There is simply no-one who I want to talk to who would choose to leave me a voicemail if I don't answer.

I've got enough IRS and social security calls on my voice mail as to ignore them all too. If I don't know the voice and I'm not expected the call it is ignored.

I have a similar problem with voicemail: the spammers leave voicemail too so I don't want to check that either.

Yeah, I use Google Voice and just read the transcript since that takes a lot less time.

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