When I get together with friends for lunch or just to chat here at The Home, often the subject of spam calls will come up. To their cell phones (most don’t have a land line anymore).
I had lunch with a friend on Friday and she told me that her husband can get as many as 50 spam calls a day on his cell phone–WTF?? Full disclosure: he has attempted to solve this problem by downloading free apps that promise to “clean your phone.” Okay, that’s like trying to get rid of fleas by joining a pack of street dogs.
But other people I talk to complain about spam phone calls every day, sometimes several per day. How are they getting on spam callers’ lists? We are talking about “old people” here. Are they just not phone savvy? Do people in younger age groups (30-50) get less spam than my contemporaries? Do you get lots of spam calls to your cell phone?
I might get a couple of spam calls per month. Maybe. My phone screen will say “likely spam” or something similar, so naturally I don’t answer. I’ve had the same cell phone number for 30+ years (maybe longer), and I’m careful about giving it out. I get a few spam texts, mostly political, and I block those numbers. I’m guessing those are legit and not robo-calls, but I still don’t want them.
Different cell phone providers have different levels of spam filtering. The major providers have more robust blocking than budget providers. If you’re getting a lot of spam calls, you can get apps which use your contacts as a whitelist to allow the call to ring through if they are in your contacts. If the caller is not in your contacts, then you can set whether to send it to voicemail or just drop the call.
I rarely get them too. My guess is that it’s because I don’t sign up for anything unless absolutely necessary. Meaning, I share very little information online and use as few services as possible that require creating an account.
A couple of months ago I had to change some information in my retirement system and immediately got a few spam calls. That tells you something.
The less you interact with spammers by answering calls the less you will get. And never talk with them, they are recording your voice for use in other future scams to sell to other scammers.
Also, you likley don’t interact with online surveys games and quizes designed to profile you. People still think those things are harmless, they are not.
My wife and I are on a family plan, but her number is numerically before mine, and she gets a lot more spam calls than I do. I’m on Verizon, and they are 100% accurate in identifying the call as spam, which lets me hang up quickly.
We get lots more on our landline, even though we have NoMoRobo, but our phone announces the number, and they all say “Unavailable” as the source, so we don’t ever answer.
I’m with OP, I get one or two spam calls (or less) a month, which I don’t answer; I am much more likely to get spam texts, but many of them start with someone else’s first name (always the same first name) so I suspect my phone number is out there with someone else’s name on it, possibly the person who had the number before me (I’m looking at you, Kevin); I also block the spam texters’ numbers, and the quantity has gone down, but it also tends to be “seasonal” depending on what political things might be going on.
I’m also with the OP on not doing entertainment on my phone. I use it for phone calls, texting, and for maps and directions for driving, and that’s pretty much it. Oh, I also use it sometimes for photos, but I don’t post them anywhere, especially not from my phone. I am very chary of loading any new app on my phone. I’ve had this number for 13 years or so. My carrier is an el cheapo (Boost Mobile) and I’m very happy with them for under $30/month.
I’m with Consumer Cellular and I don’t get many crap calls. I set up 3 ringtone - one for family & friends, one for businesses I deal with, and the default more often than not comes up “Suspected Spam”. It saves me from rushing to answer unwanted calls. I’m getting fewer of them as time goes on.
LOL, I haven’t worked for them in 8 years now, but I’m still with them because the particular plan / features / grandfathered promos work for me. Not to mention I’m signed up to get local fiber internet from them at a lower cost than Xfinity.
So anyway, a couple of thoughts on the thread.
I get a number of Spam calls a day, but mostly (between Pixel and T-Mobile) they come up with a “Spam Likely” message or the like. Figure 10-20 such a week. I look at the message, and since maybe 2 of those leave a message, and half of those are just clicks. Yeah, sometimes I miss an automated “you have an appointment message” but I do check my voice mail.
Pixels generally have good filtering, and most major carriers do as well for known/suspected sources, but some of the less expensive carriers/resellers don’t bother. A lot of resellers have the same philosophy as budget airlines - give the lowest possible cost, and everything you previously expected (carry on, seating, etc.) is now a paid extra. Which is fine, as long as you’re expecting it.
But @running_coach is the most correct - they probably responded in some way, filled out some information on a sketch site/ad, or something else and they’ve been marketed as a possible good target. They’ve become a commodity on the internet of scams and spams. There isn’t a good fix.
My landline number was apparently assigned to a fax machine some time ago. For the first few years I had it, I would get about 10 calls/week from other fax machines. They were programmed to start pinging even if an answering machine picked up, and they would call back several times in a row when they couldn’t make the connection. I very rarely get them now that fax technology is largely defunct.
I get several spam calls per week, and I’m only 43! I blame various data leaks for allowing my number to fall into the hands of spammers. (Also, I’ve had the same number for nearly 26 years, so there have been plenty of opportunities for it to leak out there.) Google intercepts pretty much all of the calls though, so all I get is the screening notification.
Shout-out to