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[-] toynbee@lemmy.world 9 points 6 months ago

Recently, I've been getting calls I'm pretty sure are spam. They are all from different numbers, but all of the area codes are from where I got my phone number, which is quite far from where I live now. Additionally, they all do leave voicemails, but each and every one is exactly thirty seconds of silence.

Spam or not, I can't figure out the point.

[-] Spookyghost@sh.itjust.works 11 points 6 months ago

They spoof a number close to your number to increase the chance you pickup, they don't know you moved.

I'd bet the silence calls are to determine if a phone number is active.

[-] toynbee@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago

I definitely know about the spoofing - that's what made me figure it was spam initially.

The waiting for a voice response makes sense, but I've never encountered a system that didn't at least say some form of "hello." Not this persistent of one, anyway.

Thanks!

[-] atro_city@fedia.io 4 points 6 months ago

Probably a bot waiting for a voice in order to start. It waits until it hangs up.

[-] toynbee@lemmy.world 2 points 6 months ago

That makes sense, and I appreciate the information.

You'd think they would have marked me as inactive by now - they've been calling every day or two, including weekends, for more than a month. I haven't answered once! The persistence is the only thing that made me question whether it was spam.

[-] CidVicious@sh.itjust.works 1 points 6 months ago

It's AI, I'd be willing to bet. Waiting to detect a human before responding with whatever scam they're selling.

[-] BigDaddySlim@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago

Had this problem too (phone number is from NM but I'm in MA now) so I just started messing with them. I'd answer "Federal Bureau of Investigation, Albuquerque district office, how may I direct your call?" Click. After about a week of doing this I haven't gotten a single spam call, this was like 2 years ago. Who cares it it's "impersonating a federal agency" or whatever, they're scammers overseas, fuck em.

this post was submitted on 09 Jun 2025
607 points (98.9% liked)

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