The US Do Not Call registry is offline | Hacker News Reader

The US Do Not Call registry is offline

donotcall.gov

22 pointsOvidStavrica12 comments

Considering I still get a ton of spam calls, I really wonder how well it worked in the first place.

Start answering them and try to string them along as long as possible. That’s the only way you can send a signal that calling this number is actively unprofitable.

Just telling them to stop calling doesn’t work, but since I started wasting their time they have mostly quit calling. I get one or two a month.

But my time is valuable… but I would pay OpenAI's V2V rates for the privilege of stringing along scammers. I need a button “transfer to time waster agent”.

You could also transfer them to your Uncle Lenny. He can talk for hours if need be.

https://lennytroll.com/

If you pay for a service like this, you will inadvertently create more spam callers. OpenAI will start (secretly) creating spam AI agents to create demand for their AI waster agents.

I fully expected that this registry is an automated system.

I'm struggling to understand why this system would be offline while the FTS website is still online: https://www.ftc.gov/

Is there a technical reason for the registry to go offline, or is it an intentional casualty of the power struggle in DC?

If you look at the wayback machine, it was offline with a similar message during the 2013 and 2018/2019 shutdowns, too.

That’ll save all the spam callers a little time not checking and then ignoring it.

I know I am a bit late to the party, nothing of value was lost here.

I never signed up for it because I know this is really a method for giving telemarketers a list of good phone numbers. I hardly get any calls were people I know who signed up gets lots.

That is because these companies opened up subsidiaries in foreign countries and used the list to call people. Many calls people I know get are from spoofed numbers located in other countries.

Does the do not call system actually work?

Doubt it. I used it for several years and then forgot one year. Same amount of spam. Decided to see how it would go if I stopped and I see no difference in the amount of spam calls since.

Didn’t work anyway

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