Great news everyone! I’ve just been offered a position to remotely train an AI and I can make up to $6000 a day!
Yeah, right.
I’m in the middle of a conversation with someone who randomly instant messaged me. I like to play dumb with these people and then occasionally throw some obscure questions at them and watch them squirm, or just toss subtle insults in my replies.
Anyone else get a kick out of messing with these scammers? Any particular shenanigans you like to throw at them, out any good stories that have come from it?
I get a lot of SEO spam at work. I usually reply to them that they are not on the first page of Google and then a bit of creativity.
“Is that why your services are cheap?”
“We will be proceeding with someone competent”
Or simply “isn’t that funny”
You better not take that AI job. I applied first. It’s MINE!!! Anyhow… …there are some great videos on YouTube where people waste the time of spam callers. I also love the call center scammers who have their time wasted.
I’m pretty sure these scam calls are because the phone companies don’t care enough to build better systems. We just all accept a shitty world because Verizon can’t be bothered.
One time I spelled my last name for almost an entire minute without being interrupted. This consisted of me saying random letters at a medium pace throwing in an occasional number or random sound. Everything was great until they hung up but their patience was impressive.
Honestly I’m too worried about my voice/image being AI spoofed to bother answering any calls I’m not expecting.
While I know I’m not rich enough to be a target I lack the cybersecurity skills to chew what I might bite off if I made it personal by trolling them.
It’s not necessarily about being rich. You have an identity that can be abused to get stuff like credit and loans and open up accounts depending on what they can get. Obviously they’re not going to get THAT far with just a single recording of you saying “hello”, but I want to dispel the myth that only the rich are targeted by scammers
You have an identity that can be abused to get stuff like credit and loans
I have grandparents. Don’t want them getting scammed.
I try not to mess around with ANY voice calls, so I usually just hang up shortly after I realize what’s happening.
Yea I won’t even speak until I hear someone on the other end. Even then I disguise my voice until I’m certain it’s a legit caller.
You purposely pick up and sit in silence? Not even a “Yo”, “Sup”, or “Aye”?
I wondered why people have been doing that when I call them at work. Sucks to be them, they’ve been waiting 2 weeks to 2 months for an appointment. I just hang up and move on to the next. If they didn’t want to talk they should have let it go to voicemail.
I do because in general one of the following scenarios happen:
- A person is on the other side and when they notice the call went through they say hello (at which point I always reply regaedless of being scam/unexpected call/etc)
- A robot is on the other side and automatically starts blabbering gibberish (usually it is instant hang-up when I hear this)
- A robot is on the other side and waits for a signal, hanging up in around 3-5 seconds (since I was silent)
But to be fair if it was ever a human in scenario 3 and I missed an important call, I wouldn’t know (however I don’t think that ever happened)
Also, the burden of initiating conversation should be on the active caller side, not on the passice receiver
And lastly, I heard thar if you answer the robots, your number gets flagged as real (instead of other robot), making the scammers call you more often (I’m agnostic in regards to this statement)
Also, the burden of initiating conversation should be on the active caller side, not on the passice receiver
As an active caller, unless there is a ton of background noise, I may or may not get any indication that the person I’m calling has actually picked up. So I’m just going to sit there until they say something or hang up.
Ahh, fair enough, I always can tell when somebody picked up because the timely beeps stop (and also somehow I know that the silence from the background is different from the silence before it)
You purposely pick up and sit in silence? Not even a “Yo”, “Sup”, or “Aye”?
Yup. AI spam calls generally hang up within 3 seconds if they don’t hear a voice on the other end. It’s when they detect a voice that the auto dialer connects you with the scammer.
Meanwhile 99% of the people I want to talk to are contacts in my phone or businesses with caller id.
I don’t answer calls from random numbers anyways so it’s largely irrelevant unless I’m expecting calls for some reason.
Meanwhile 99% of the people I want to talk to are contacts in my phone or businesses with caller id.
And that’s why I don’t feel too bad moving on to the next. If I’m calling someone, they had to have called me at least once already. If they’re too lazy to save the number and want to play silly games, I have better uses of my time. I was just curious of the thought process.
It’s when they detect a voice that the auto dialer connects you with the scammer.
I just hang up as soon as I hear that little “bloop” sound and that cuts out 90% of them.
Now that you mention it, I think I’ve noticed that too. Is it like the phone version of the Gen Z stare?
the Gen Z stare
That’s just an effective tactic. I’m way older than gen z and figured out a long time ago that unless a reply is absolutely necessary, just staying quiet and staring will get a transactional conversation to it’s point and over much quicker.
Actually I think the few seconds might be caused by people taking calls on their ear buds.
I use a shitty android and JBLs so maybe airpods don’t have that slight delay when they connect.
Every time I get called by a spammed I do my best to waste as much of their time as possible and consider it a badge of honour when they get pissed and start swearing at me.
Every minute with me is a minute they aren’t stealing from someone’s grandma.
It ain’t much, but it’s honest work.
Ask them how much washing up they could do without any washing up liquid
Ive never been targeted by these peoples online but they used to call me one of my fav was " ypur parcel was stopped by customs because they found drugs, press 1 to talk to an agent"
I instantly press 1, talk to them for a bit play along stupidly then start pressing them to send me ny drugs because I need them to pay for rent. They usually hang up after that
“Thank God you’ve found them! I’m going to need that insulin REAL soon!” 😂
Maybe if it is very ironic or something, but otherwise just report and move on
