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Comment by thephyber | Hacker News Reader

Yup.

I didn’t realize how bad it got until my father stopped answering calls. It turned out he was getting (no hyperbole) 90 calls a day from spammers and vendors he had no relationship with.

I used the iOS filter, the AT&T filter, and turned on the shortcut so the phone doesn’t ring unless the caller is in his contacts.

The problem is that it already changed his behavior. He doesn’t answer the phone anymore, even if it is a person he recognizes. The Pavlovian response to his ringtone is still very negative.

I’m sure there is a non-trivial percentage of the US who already viscerally hates receiving phone calls.

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This sounds stupid, but it worked for me. Change the ringtone.

You mean that vibrating sound that the phone makes when a robocall comes in?

The original iPhone ringtone still causes anxiety when I hear it because of a horrific couple years on call. Changing the ringtone works.

Haha yeah, I do that for me. My VIP contacts have a different ringtone and Messages sound.

I didn’t realize how bad my alert/notification sounds fatigue got until I realized that a coworker’s (in an open office layout) phone was the same brand as the office fridge (so his notifications made me get up to check if the fridge was left ajar) and his home doorbell was the same sound as the office doorbell.

Try being a business where you are obligated to answer the phone in case it's a customer. We easily average a hundred junk calls for every one valid customer call.

I have taken to speaking like a robot, repeating two sentences in a loop ("You have reached technical support, please describe your issue." -> "I am sorry, I cannot deviate from the technical support script. You have reached technical support...") until the spammers come to the realization they cannot manipulate me into giving an affirmative response that they can interpret as consent to move our phone service, subscribe to service offerings, etc.

They have made phone service effectively worthless, just as they have made all other forms of communication effectively worthless.

Edit: Just remembered something else I do: I do not answer the phone with "Hello" or anything like that. The vast majority of calls that we receive are originated by an autodialer that is listening for a typical greeting so it knows in what language its payload should be delivered. Instead, I answer with only the name of the business and nothing else. If I hear silence, I repeat the name of the business. After a short time, the autodialer gives up and terminates the call.

That's wild. I'm in the US, and I get maybe 1-2 spam calls a month. I get more spam texts than calls, though not many of those either. I've never done anything special to try to prevent them, so I wonder what the difference is.

My theory is age. I get very few calls. Neither does my wife. My mother in law is called multiple times a day. I assume there’s some basic demographic data available out there and they’re targeting retirees because they know (statistically speaking) they’re an easy hit.

My 86 year old father regularly gets calls from his "grandson" (who does not exist)... who is in jail, and needs help.

FWIW, I am in my 20s and receive many phone calls. But maybe your theory is correct and I am an outlier.

I think an important factor is also how long you had the same number. I switch numbers every couple of years because I get a new contract and moving the number to the new company is such a hassle. Over time you share your number with more and more companies and people who sell it or get breached.

My parents had their number for ~30 years. I never get spam calls or texts. They get one once a week or so (this is in Germany, we get a lot fewer of these calls).

I’ve had the same cell phone number for 25 years across 5 carriers and get maybe 1 spam call a week.

I get about 6 a day, just as another data point. As the other poster said I've set my phone so that only people in my contacts make it ring. Unfortunately that still means I have to manually go delete the voice mail notifications, all of which are 6-10 second of silence (6 out of 7 times) or some Chinese (I'm not Chinese and don't speak Chinese).

Stupidly, AFAICT, none of the phone services bother to auto-delete silent voice messages so I have to manually delete them, each one taking ~6 seconds ("call from One Two Three Five Five Five Six Seven Eight Night at three twenty seven pee em, on friday june twenty sixth ..........." delete. Repeat

If you pick up it's a positive signal that routes more to you. For a week or two I was like "eh, takes 5s, maybe it's a call from my doctor or something" and would pick up. Big mistake, got like 10 a day for a while after that.

I think

(1) he was self-employed, so his business contact info (also his personal info) became public record

(2) he NEVER opted out of anything (eg “type STOP to opt-out”), never told callers to take him off their marketing list, and he was VERY sloppy with handing out his primary contact info on websites (maybe shopping or sweepstakes).

Can you share those countermeasures you mentioned? I haven’t been able to find anything for the iPhone.

Set a default ringtone to silence. Give each contact on my phone a custom non-silent ringtone. If a non-contact calls and it's important enough, they'll leave a voice message. The first year or so some spammers would leave a message (usually half a message as my outgoing message caused their canned robot to start speaking), but the past year or so, no bad voice mail messages.

Can't you use the "silence unknown callers" option instead?

Only if your phone supports it. Not all do.

Search settings for “focus”. You can set up a do not disturb mode that does roughly what the parent comment describes.

I get them in waves. Sometimes dozens a day, then a month with maybe one a week...

The IRS and FBI are apparently constantly after me.

They do love to leave empty voice mails for me quite often and that is annoying.

voicemail is a dead technology, just like the mini tapes they used to be saved on. its just 1 more notification type to waste your time anymore. disable it and never look back and i assume you that you wont regret it. if they really need to contact you they will text afyer an unanswered call. I suppose its only redeeming factor is if someone you care about passes away you have a recording of their voice to hold on to, which is priceless to some. regardless, I haven't had it enabled in over 10 years and it hasn't held me back

I have my phone set to ignore any unknown callers (not in my contacts) and when someone I do want to talk to but never put in my contacts (example I'm taking bids for a new roof) I need my voice mail to help identify who called / if I care.

In that case voice mail is required.

I got there. I finally just had to switch my longstanding number. Nothing else worked.

You don't need to be 90. I'm half that age with the same behavior.

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