Phone Scams And What Can I Do About Them?

What happens if you hold down on the number? Does it popup a menu with a list of options?

 

I'll have to get back to you on that. I don't use my phone all that often, and I recently did a reset on it after an Android update failed and screwed things up (battery was low when it forced an update and it died while in the middle of updating. This is why one should plug it in before an update!), so there's nothing in my history that I can try with at the moment. Hopefully can figure this out because I'd really rather not have to use an external app.

 

You know, if you have the time and compunction, some people make hilarious videos on Youtube fucking with scammers and wasting their time.

If that is something you might be interested in, make sure to watch a number of videos so you know the scammer techniques so you can fuck with them to a greater degree and waste as much time as possible.

 

Tom Mabe is a master of this art.

 

Anytime I get calls like this, I usually play along just to waste their time. I usually get calls about my cars warranty, I never get calls threatening to throw me in jail. I could have some fun with those.

 

That Mabe call has been a favorite of mine since I first heard it probably a decade ago.

 

I like the video where a tax lawyer gets a call from a fake IRS tax scammer when he's at work at his specialty tax law firm.

Kor

 

I wonder if there might be a way to actually link cell phones so that they could only call each other--couple an isp with a phone number somehow.

The idea would not be to block numbers--but to ONLY admit certain numbers.

With some type of manual phone synching, you go to loved ones and hold your phones together--friends, family, employers(?)
Only they can call--all other calls go to a text line in the cloud that you can overlook, or are instantly deleted altogether.

Such an app would not only nix robocalls, but phone centers for collection agencies. Hell--they might pay the code monkey behind it a huge sum to NOT release said app--a fake demonstration by simply turning the phone off would be a way for the robocallers to send you money, perhaps

Now, they might try to get around this by demanding you accept calls--but that could be done on a burner phone you would only use for transactions anyway.

 

Who would make it happen though? The FTC is friggin' useless with their "do not call" list, along with pretty much everything else they do.

 

I think it could be a stand alone app. A bottom up disruptive thing outside of the FTC's control.

Not a code writer myself--if I had to sit in front of a monitor and gnip gnop on a keyboard--I'd put my fist through the screen in about five minutes flat.

Maybe the guys behind 2600 magazine, Mitnick or whatever.

 

some cell phones already have it.

It's known as blocking unknown numbers which means it will means unless the number is your contacts list the call will blocked.