# Who answers the phone these days? (unknown number) **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 5, 2023, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-answers-the-phone-these-days-unknown-number/994140 "2023-12-05T14:06:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2023, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-answers-the-phone-these-days-unknown-number/994140/61 "2023-12-06T04:13:22Z")
Never. I have my phone set to silence all incoming calls from unknown numbers and send them straight to voicemail. If it’s actually anything important, they’ll leave a message. I can probably count on one hand the number of times it’s been a legitimate caller, and have a couple fingers left over. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2023, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-answers-the-phone-these-days-unknown-number/994140/62 "2023-12-06T04:20:52Z")
I’m waiting for the day when a Nobel committee has to return to using a hand-delivered telegram because an awardee never answers unknown phone numbers. ---
**Author:** ![InternetLegend](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/internetlegend/32/13154_2.png) [@InternetLegend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InternetLegend)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2023, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-answers-the-phone-these-days-unknown-number/994140/63 "2023-12-06T06:23:46Z")
I’ll usually answer my phone if the caller ID doesn’t flag it as spam (my phone is pretty accurate about that). If I’m busy, I won’t, but all too often it turns out to be from someone I need to talk to and we end up playing phone tag. I’ve gotten enough emergency phone calls from unknown numbers that I’m a little superstitious about not answering, especially if my loved ones aren’t home. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2023, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-answers-the-phone-these-days-unknown-number/994140/64 "2023-12-06T07:24:36Z")
Heavy use of the telephone system for spam and scam calls seems to be mostly a (North) American thing, perhaps because of the predominant billing models there. On most North American landlines, you pay a flat monthly fee for unlimited incoming calls and unlimited outgoing local calls (and maybe also long-distance calls). On North American cell phones, you usually pay by the minute (or for monthly blocks of minutes) for both incoming and outgoing calls. Whereas in Europe, incoming cell phone calls are free, but incoming landline calls, outgoing landline calls, and outgoing cell phone calls are charged by the minute, with a much higher rate charged for outgoing calls to cell phones. This means that, in North America, if a scammer or spammer can call from a local landline or a landline with no long-distance charges, then to ring as many victims as possible it costs them nothing other than the monthly landline rental, whereas the victim must pay for the call if he or she answers from a cell phone. In Europe, a scammer or spammer will _always_ have to pay by the minute for the call, and will moreover pay a lot more to call a victim with a cell phone, whereas the victim pays nothing. I’ve lived in Europe for the last twenty years, and have received a total of zero scam calls and _maybe_ three spam calls. Those were all from the same market research company who wanted to ask me about my wine-purchasing habits; they called me once a year for three years. At the time I mentioned this to my colleagues and they were all surprised as they’d never received any scam or spam calls. ---
**Author:** ![bengangmo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@bengangmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bengangmo)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2023, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-answers-the-phone-these-days-unknown-number/994140/65 "2023-12-06T07:59:43Z")
I work for a rental car company. About 75% of our business is from a variety of booking agents and aggregators around the world. For most bookings we only get a name and a cell phone. There are any number of legitimate reasons we need to call, all of them in the best interests of our customers. We use an internet calling system that is supposed to show our number but, A. This doesn’t always work B. Nobody will recognise it anyway I pretty much never leave a message if the customer doesn’t answer as A. What sort of person expects a return call to an international number B. I want to verify I am actually speaking to our customer C. Language and complexity of the message. All of you people that refuse to answer a number you don’t recognise would be the bane of my existence - I’m not calling for my good health, to sell you something or to be annoying. I’m calling because there is a detail I need to check to make sure your rental experience goes smoothly or because there’s information I need from you to make sure your car is ready and waiting for you. Its pretty common - when we can’t get hold of people, they end up waiting outside the airport at 1 or 2 am going “where the fuck is my car?” Yes the system is broken (in that we can’t get an email address) but we can’t fix it, we are just doing the best we can with what we have. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2023, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-answers-the-phone-these-days-unknown-number/994140/66 "2023-12-06T08:17:06Z")
> [@bengangmo](#): > > All of you people that refuse to answer a number you don’t recognise would be the bane of my existence - I’m not calling for my good health, to sell you something or to be annoying. I’m calling because there is a detail I need to check to make sure your rental experience goes smoothly or because there’s information I need from you to make sure your car is ready and waiting for you. > Its pretty common - when we can’t get hold of people, they end up waiting outside the airport at 1 or 2 am going “where the fuck is my car?” > Yes the system is broken (in that we can’t get an email address) but we can’t fix it, we are just doing the best we can with what we have. Can you send a text? ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2023, 9:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-answers-the-phone-these-days-unknown-number/994140/67 "2023-12-06T09:38:38Z")
> [@psychonaut](#): > > On North American cell phones, you usually pay by the minute (or for monthly blocks of minutes) for both incoming and outgoing calls. Do some of us still pay by the minute? I have unlimited talk and text, and assumed it was the same for everyone by now. Especially what with people talking so much less it doesn’t seem to be in the service providers’ interest to meter our minutes. Of course we do text a lot more, but If they started charging for texts again it would be a PR disaster, since SMS has become the default spam-unsolicited promotion bucket. We do have only 3Gb of mobile data for each of our two lines, but we usually don’t come close to maxing out on that. It did happen a couple of months ago when our terrestrial internet went out for a few hours, and we used a phone to stream Netflix. TBH I couldn’t believe how well that worked; you couldn’t tell it was any different from our usual cable internet service. I only answer if I recognize the name or the number, or if I’m expecting a call. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2023, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-answers-the-phone-these-days-unknown-number/994140/68 "2023-12-06T12:09:54Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > I have unlimited talk and text, and assumed it was the same for everyone by now. Since I’m moving back, I recently had to do a survey of what providers there are and what plans they’re offering. Some of them do offer plans with unlimited calls, but all of them also offer plans with a certain number of minutes per month (which seem much more affordable, at least for me). Perhaps the market is different where you are, and most providers are offering affordable unlimited plans… ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2023, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-answers-the-phone-these-days-unknown-number/994140/69 "2023-12-06T12:19:32Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > If you don’t like phone calls, getting a text first doesn’t really help with that. But it would help you have the phone call only when you are available for one. I have gotten a text from someone saying they would rather discuss what they want to talk about via a call. The majority of times I then reply that anything we can discuss verbally we can similarly discuss textually. I leave it to them to decide whether it is worth their while to continue. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2023, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-answers-the-phone-these-days-unknown-number/994140/70 "2023-12-06T12:45:52Z")
I usually answer. Could be a contractor or one of his crew that is working on the house, or any number of things. ---
**Author:** ![TRC4941](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trc4941/32/6792_2.png) [@TRC4941](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TRC4941)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2023, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-answers-the-phone-these-days-unknown-number/994140/71 "2023-12-06T15:10:03Z")
If I’m not in the office, work calls are automatically transferred to my cell phone, so I usually do. For a while I was getting loads of Medicare scammy calls, so I put a scam blocker on my phone. It worked pretty good, until I noticed it had blocked some work calls. So I had to remove it. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2023, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-answers-the-phone-these-days-unknown-number/994140/72 "2023-12-06T16:26:01Z")
I never answer; my theory being that a legitimate caller will leave a message and a spammer won’t. Every once in a while a spammer leaves one, but not often. I know some people like to answer because they like to screw with them, but here is a good reason not to answer. Google > If you answer the call, your number is considered ‘good’ by the scammers, even if you don’t necessarily fall for the scam. They will try again because they know someone on the other side is a potential victim of fraud. **The less you answer, the fewer robocalls you will receive.** ---
**Author:** ![Cardigan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardigan/32/187_2.png) [@Cardigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardigan)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2023, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-answers-the-phone-these-days-unknown-number/994140/73 "2023-12-06T16:36:42Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > If you answer the call, your number is considered ‘good’ by the scammers, even if you don’t necessarily fall for the scam. They will try again because they know someone on the other side is a potential victim of fraud. **The less you answer, the fewer robocalls you will receive.** This. I get irritated when Mrs. Cardigan decides to screw around with the scammers for this very reason. Why would you do **anything** that invites MORE phone calls? Boggles my mind. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2023, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-answers-the-phone-these-days-unknown-number/994140/74 "2023-12-06T17:09:21Z")
> [@bengangmo](#): > > I pretty much never leave a message if the customer doesn’t answer as > A. What sort of person expects a return call to an international number > B. I want to verify I am actually speaking to our customer > C. Language and complexity of the message. All you have to leave is ‘I’m calling from X rental company with information about your rental. Please call me back at Y number between the hours of A and B.’ There’s nothing complex about that; and you can verify you’re speaking to the customer when they call you back. And you’ll have a whole lot fewer pissed off customers if you do. If you’re not going to do that, at least warn them when they make the reservation that they may get a call from you that will screw up their travel if they don’t take it or call back, it’ll come from an unknown number, and you won’t leave any message! – I’m in the USA and both my landline and my cell phone are flat rate both ways (the cell phone has a ceiling, but I never come near it.) I don’t think that applies to international calls, but I don’t usually have any. I did get a call today from someone claiming to be a credit card company and telling me that for being such a good customer they were giving me a 0% interest rate. I said if so they’d be sending that info in the mail. Voice on the phone said ‘yes, it’ll be in the mail, just first we need to --’ What they thought I need to I don’t know, because I’d hung up. But I don’t get a lot of such calls; not enough to make me stop answering, except when the phone says that it’s scam (and there are several landline phones in different rooms, only one of which will tell me.) And I’ve been answering it for years. So I’m dubious that answering it always gets you lots of scam calls, even if you sound suspicious and hang up as soon as it’s obvious. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2023, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-answers-the-phone-these-days-unknown-number/994140/75 "2023-12-06T18:42:26Z")
> [@psychonaut](#): > > Perhaps the market is different where you are, and most providers are offering affordable unlimited plans… I’m paying $73/mo for two lines @ 3Gb each, plus unlimited talk/text. Our previous provider was charging north of $200 albeit with unlimited data, and that rate didn’t go down after our old phones were paid off. Feel free to PM me if you would like further details. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2023, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-answers-the-phone-these-days-unknown-number/994140/76 "2023-12-06T19:17:23Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Surely, if you won’t pick up the phone when you see it’s a poll, you also wouldn’t agree to answer the poll if you had picked up. But FiveThirtyEight (RIP) has said that phone survey accuracy has dropped Shades of the 1936 Literary Digest poll of the Presidential election that predicted Landon would win in a walk over FDR. People who readily answer the phone are not necessarily going to vote the same way as people who screen. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2023, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-answers-the-phone-these-days-unknown-number/994140/77 "2023-12-06T20:22:03Z")
Gen X’er here. I already don’t really like people (though I fake it really well). - I worked in a customer service position for years and I still flinch a tiny bit when the phone rings, I got so much abuse in that job - I had an ex bf who when we broke up had all of his friends call me and harass me - my current job is people facing and I have to be super friendly and “on” all the time - my husband works from home and I almost never get time alone anymore With all of that stuff in mind, it is just one of the social interactions I despise. And we did terribly from going to landlines to cellphones. Convenience, I guess but now people can harass me anywhere and at all times and also the sound is terrible - landlines are crystal clear. And don’t leave me a vm either I hate them. Hang up and text me. And get off my lawn! ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2023, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-answers-the-phone-these-days-unknown-number/994140/78 "2023-12-06T20:23:32Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > My voicemail is set up to transcribe voice messages to text. Just got a new phone that does this and OH MY GOD its a game changer. (I don’t update my phone very often. My first ever smartphone I purchased in 2018 and I just updated it in Septembr 2023). ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2023, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-answers-the-phone-these-days-unknown-number/994140/79 "2023-12-06T20:47:52Z")
The area code for my phone is not the same as the local area code where I live. I don’t answer unknown numbers that are (supposedly) from the same area code as my phone, because they are almost unvariably spam/scam calls, but I do answer unknown numbers from my local area code. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2023, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-answers-the-phone-these-days-unknown-number/994140/80 "2023-12-09T15:13:35Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > If it’s to my cell, I’ll see it. Sometime. Eventually. That one brief blip is really easy to miss. At least on my Android, when I next pick up the phone it’ll vibrate momentarily if I have any unseen text message or unlistened voicemails. When I open up the screen the messaging app icon will have a little number on top showing how many unread texts there are. Likewise there’s an icon along the top row with a symbol for unheard VMs. I might not touch my phone for an hour or three after your text came in and I missed the chirp. Or overnight when all that is muted. But for damned sure as soon as I touch the phone I’ll know something is waiting to be seen. I still might not do anything about that right now, but at least the way my phone works, I never have the problem of “Your message came in, I didn’t deal with it instantly, then I never heard or saw about it again.” The reminders will be there indefinitely until I deal with them by reading, listening, or deleting the messages. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-answers-the-phone-these-days-unknown-number/994140.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-answers-the-phone-these-days-unknown-number/994140.md?page=5)