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Comment by aidenn0 | Hacker News Reader

> To me, answering calls from random or unknown numbers is something the older generation do, the one that grew up before phone spam became the norm. I would estimate that, in general, less than half of incoming calls to my phone are legitimate.

I would say I get about 20 spam calls for every legitimate call I get (1-2 legitimate calls per day, 20-40 spam calls).

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Either you really messed up with who you shared your number with,

and/or you're answering more than 0% of unknown callers, validating the line,

or someone has intentionally signed you up for marketing lists.

This is an insane situation to consider dealing with. I have three to five phone lines depending, less than 3 spam calls total per month.

I'm in the same boat of spam calls. The majority are looking for the previous owner of the number (debt collectors). The thing is I've had this number for well over any sort statute of limitations on debt. In the past I considered getting a new number but that would also be a giant pain. There also wouldn't be any guarantee that the new number wasn't in the same boat

That's between two lines; there are certain area codes that for personal reasons I basically have to answer. As an aside: Android's "Suspected Spam caller" is incredibly inaccurate; with the huge storm last weekend, the emergency alert was flagged this way, and actual spam calls often aren't.

If one of those areas codes is the same as the area code in your number, you're just plain screwed!

Can't answer the calls, ever, or you're "marked" - simple as that.

Really sorry to hear this.

Since you mentioned not enjoying it, and for the reader in a similar situation, a suggestion: use an internet number, with totally different area code from your received calls, so you have a prayer.

All ow the calls through. When a human starts talking don't hang up, but don't speak to them either. Allow them to hang up.

You'll soon get taken off the lists.

Pick up the phone, keep silent for 5 seconds. A human on the other end would say something or you would hear background noise. If you don't hear anything, hang up. This works because the auto-dialers that call centers use listen for you to say something before starting the robo-dialogue or patching you into a meat-talker.

This does work currently, but I worry for when we begin to see LLM agents that assess the victim for gullibility before transferring to an available, practiced con artist.

Mute your end if you're going to do this.

This is one call every 22 minutes. Even half that, pushing every ~45 minutes, is well past the point I would just get a new phone number.

That being said I'm probably exactly the type of person to have a full VM with no legitimate messages in it.

> well past the point I would just get a new phone number

Agreed, but 2FA makes this a non-starter. I don't want to find out a year from now that I can't access ___ service because they have my old number on file and won't let me change it.

As it is I can't get into my bank account to pay my phone bill if it's past due and service gets suspended. It's infuriating.

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