# What Scam Phone Calls Do You Get?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scam-phone-calls-do-you-get/964024>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [May 5, 2022, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scam-phone-calls-do-you-get/964024 "2022-05-05T18:06:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2022, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scam-phone-calls-do-you-get/964024/61 "2022-05-11T17:36:35Z")

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> [@snowthx](#):
>
> The scam there is when someone answers the call, the caller-bot has now identified that number as connected to a live person, making the phone number that much more valuable to sell to some other scammer.

In theory your comment makes sense. But it doesn’t make any difference in practice. They’re still not saying anything later in following calls either. So what does that information get them? Nothing. I just got a no-talking spam call as I type this.

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**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2022, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scam-phone-calls-do-you-get/964024/62 "2022-05-11T17:39:36Z")

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Are they actually going to the trouble of identifying live numbers? I get the impression that they just call every number in the area code.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2022, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scam-phone-calls-do-you-get/964024/63 "2022-05-11T17:46:55Z")

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> [@Dewey\_Finn](#):
>
> Are they actually going to the trouble of identifying live numbers? I get the impression that they just call every number in the area code.

If they are, they aren’t doing a good job. Because some times I actually answer the phone, and they still won’t talk to me. How many years (literally - this has been going on for what 15-20 years) will it take to “verify” this number? What would that even get anyone?

They need to “verify” numbers of people that actually fall for these scams. Now THAT would be a useful database.

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