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Comment by gostsamo | Hacker News Reader

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gostsamo·

What is the exact spam? Can it be reported to the police or to the telecom selling those numbers?

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I get the same shit. I rarely pick up, but when they do leave a message it's for one of:

* Extended car warranties

* "Winning" a free Marriott trip

* Claims that I owe money to the IRS, and if I don't call back they'll "be forced" to send an agent to arrest me

In other words: 100% scams.

I once actually "pressed 1" to speak to some "operator".

Then i threatened whoever was on the other line with abuse.

Calls apparently stopped

I've tried that a few times to no avail. It does give slight pleasure to trick them into thinking I'm going to buy a warranty or something and waste 10 mins of their time.

I used to do that before I got to the point of being unwilling to spend my time trying to beat my personal best record of two hours of holding them on the line.

"I'm very old and I don't know what you are wanting me to do... Can you say all that again? .... My bank login doesn't seem to be working.... My computer doesn't have that button on it ...."

I'm unsure because I do not answer the calls.

Since I do not live in 470 area code I do not answer calls from there. I've read (unsure the validity) that answering spam calls alone can be used as another data point in phishing.

Well, the information that you can gain might be more than what they will gain from you. Options are not to talk and just to check what will be said on the other side. Also, not sure if there is a way to blacklist phone numbers by regex, but it is worth exploring. :)

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