Why Robocallers Win Even If You Don’t Answer | Hacker News Reader

Why Robocallers Win Even If You Don’t Answer

wsj.com

14 pointsmmhsieh13 comments

Fwiw I always answer and then engage the human operator in a one sided dramatic play. Calls always step for a couple of months after that.

I always try this but they almost always hang up instantly. I can never figure out the right answer to “We heard you were in an accident that wasn’t your fault”

I found the best response is "Have a nice day" and hang up. While we hate them, they probably hate their job too. Being "nice" and not wasting my or their time means that they practically stopped calling me.

I thought the play was to keep them on for as long as possible before they catch on. I had one 5 minute call talking about Air Ducks, perhaps a toy like Air Hogs, but I couldn't really understand why they needed to know how many rooms I had in my house.

I have searched for a project for blocking robocallers using a Raspberry Pi. Recently, I have received a lot of annoying calls on my landline phone. Surprisingly, there is a lack for solutions based on Raspberry Pi. This project [0] seems to be the best for the task. However, you still need to invest on a USB modem. The author recommends a U.S. Robotics 5637 Modem, but it is expensive, at least in Mexico. Compared to blocking ads with a Pi Hole, blocking robocallers is harder.

[0] https://emxsys.github.io/callattendant/

Kind of like what Android does already?

Yes. There are many apps that work for mobile phones. There are also some devices that block calls using a landline phone. However, they are not flexible. If you want to block phone numbers using a pattern, like *01 to *99, it is difficult to do it using those devices. That is why a Raspberry Pi would be a better fit. However, it seems to be more expensive.

Can anyone post the full article? There is a paywall

Here you go: https://archive.is/xfhZ2

I don't get why we are still using Integers to do phone calls. We could solve this with either a little bit of cooperation with Google + Apple or government stepping in

What about backward compatibility with traditional phones?

You would prefer floats?

(I kid, I am also puzzled that there is apparently no way for a network to verify a caller is a subscriber and not someone leasing VoIP numbers)

All you need is boolean. It either is or isn't the phone you wanted to call. :)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com