Comment by jhot | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jhot | Hacker News Reader

This spring I was applying for jobs so I answered my phone for more unknown numbers than usual. This has lead to a huge increase in spam calls that I receive on a daily basis and Google Phone's spam filter isn't strict enough for my liking (not to mention no longer available since I'm running GrapheneOS).

If you're an Android and Tasker user you can take matters into your own hands and set Tasker as your call screen app. There are two different blocking types, one shows that you missed a call as a notification and one does not. I have set it so that all non-contact calls are rejected but I see a missed call notification. I also have a contact with a growing list of numbers that is rejected and I do not see a notification. Additionally there is a regex filter that rejects several area codes without a notification.

When I start seeing more spam calls from a random area code in Michigan (or wherever), I just add that area code to my regex filter and then just have to worry about clearing my voicemail at the end of the day.

If I'm expecting a call from a doctor or someone who is not a contact in my phone, I just turn off the profile and deal with some spam for a day.

Of course, I would love some strict regulations around this, but I do no expect the legislation to go far enough or be effective (I'm in the US).

Are we at a place where as potential new hire candidates, we request a formal meeting to be scheduled or a quick text to let us know that the next call is legit? Or is it acceptable to tell hiring managers via checkbox on applications to say that all calls will be screened via voice mail, but will be checked with anticipation of it being a call to be returned promptly?

Being high maintenance sounds like a poor job search tactic.

yes, but...

it's not an unusual situation unique to that applicant. it's so rampant, that even the HR/hiring people will be subject to it and totally understand the request. if you want to stand out to me as a potential employer, being proactive and stating we don't have answer unknown calls as alternate arrangements via _____ method to set up a call.

I've tried screening with Google's screening service and recruiters don't use it. So I'm not sure a checkbox will do any better than "Hi the person you are calling is using a Google screening service. Please state why you are calling." They always go to voice mail and then complain about me not picking up.

I totally expect this will be fairly effective, because there aren't any major forces pushing against.

- It's a simple technical problem to identify potential spammers. There are clear patterns & habits of robocallers to id them.

- It's fairly simple to confirm spam/scams by pretending to be a target.

- Scam spam calls, though profitable, are relatively isolated and any public support will make them easier to trace. So we aren't facing huge lobby pressure to oppose the nearly universal support for spam reduction.

So it's really just a matter of allocating the resources to do something, which is exactly what this is.

I think you're overestimating the ease of detecting spam. A lot of major companies have this issue. You may argue that it's a lack of will, but they have things in place and if it was easy they'd be effective.

I dunno how successful this is, but when I get spam called, I do what I can to reach a person and then say, "Put me on the do not call list, please!" and (possibly) as a result, I really don't get as many of these spam calls as it sounds like folks here are getting.

I found that when I started doing this I would just get even more calls, just not the same ones.

I presume this is because these spammers just keep selling other spammers valid phone numbers to add to their own lists.

Agreed, what I have done is just not answer my phone unless they are in my contact list. I also do not share my cellphone number with anyone. Seems like everyone wants it these days and the pandemic made it worse, so I have a Google Voice number for people who insist on having a number.

The only phone number that gets spam calls anymore is that Google Voice number.

For all other numbers, the calls have virtually stopped.

My point is I am not getting "even more" calls, at all.

It does not work. I tried to take the approach of wasting their time by asking for their name and what not, but they are also getting trained to cut such calls off quite fast.

This doesn't work with the car warranty spam. Heck, now that I actually own a car I get letters about it too that happen to know what car we have.

This WILL NOT work. The best thing you can do is sign up for the FCC DNC list. It'll take a month but then after that every legal spam call will stop.

The problem with your method is that spammers call phones just to see if they pick up. This then confirms an active number that they maintain in their lists. This can be done legally because technically calling and hanging up and never calling again (from the same number) isn't spam. So just don't answer.

My point was I have not experienced an uptick in spam calls, and I thought y’all might find that interesting.

> It'll take a month but then after that every legal spam call will stop.

Not the ones from politicians.

That's true. They have an exception for some reason.

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