Answering unknown number calls on my cell phone like a receptionist really confuses scammers.
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@rasterweb @vees I have found that to be the case too. "Please acknowledge that you understand this call is being recorded." Always speeds things along.
@cigitalgem @vees I seem to recall someone answering with "By placing this call you agree to be billed at $9.99 per minute" or something similar.
I usually start with "How may I assist you on this fine day?" or "Please state the nature of this call." and even those rarely gets a response.
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Answering unknown number calls on my cell phone like a receptionist really confuses scammers.
"Good afternoon, thanks for calling!"
"Hello."
"Hi, who's calling please?"
"This is Experian Security Services calling to discuss an urgent issue with your account."
"Who are you trying to reach?"
"I am looking to talk to the owner of this phone number."
"I'm sorry, I'll need a name to help you."
30 seconds of silence.
Call hangs up.
@vees ask them to agree to binding arbitration
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@vees I never answer my phone with "Hello", but with reciting my phone number. How they respond to that is a good indication of whether they are a legitimate caller or not; the ones following a script tend to get confused. I then repeat my phone number. The more confused they get, the more likely I am to just keep repeating it.
With legitimate callers, reciting my phone number is merely a confirmation that they called the correct phone number (and helps me memorise it, too).
@kerravonsen Good one. I've found the words that correspond to our numbers digits; I should try saying those out loud to scammers and wait for the "huh, what?".
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Answering unknown number calls on my cell phone like a receptionist really confuses scammers.
"Good afternoon, thanks for calling!"
"Hello."
"Hi, who's calling please?"
"This is Experian Security Services calling to discuss an urgent issue with your account."
"Who are you trying to reach?"
"I am looking to talk to the owner of this phone number."
"I'm sorry, I'll need a name to help you."
30 seconds of silence.
Call hangs up.
@vees I just tell them I use Linux and half the time their scam involves installing Windows only software. They immediately hang up
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@vees I just tell them I use Linux and half the time their scam involves installing Windows only software. They immediately hang up
@vees after reading comments though... I should just click to record the call
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Answering unknown number calls on my cell phone like a receptionist really confuses scammers.
"Good afternoon, thanks for calling!"
"Hello."
"Hi, who's calling please?"
"This is Experian Security Services calling to discuss an urgent issue with your account."
"Who are you trying to reach?"
"I am looking to talk to the owner of this phone number."
"I'm sorry, I'll need a name to help you."
30 seconds of silence.
Call hangs up.
@vees Thank God for iOS 26 and being able to screen unknown callers automatically. It's saved me wasting my time with this sort of pavlava and reduced my spam calls to almost zero. The single best iPhone feature since Face ID.
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@vees This is brilliant AND fun! I generally don't answer the unknown callers, but if I do accidentally, I will try this approach!
@ColesStreetPothole @vees
I had my screening off the other day and got a vaguely work adjacent cold call “Hi this is [rando] from [acronym] calling for [mangles my name].” I answered “from *WHERE*” to which he explained who the acronym company was… to which I responded “I don’t need that” and hung up. Hopefully nobody needs whatever consulting he said, but I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t be giving him my number. Sad. -
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@ColesStreetPothole @vees
I can’t land that one. I can hang up fast though.
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Answering unknown number calls on my cell phone like a receptionist really confuses scammers.
"Good afternoon, thanks for calling!"
"Hello."
"Hi, who's calling please?"
"This is Experian Security Services calling to discuss an urgent issue with your account."
"Who are you trying to reach?"
"I am looking to talk to the owner of this phone number."
"I'm sorry, I'll need a name to help you."
30 seconds of silence.
Call hangs up.
Beautiful.. I love playing games with scammers too.
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Answering unknown number calls on my cell phone like a receptionist really confuses scammers.
"Good afternoon, thanks for calling!"
"Hello."
"Hi, who's calling please?"
"This is Experian Security Services calling to discuss an urgent issue with your account."
"Who are you trying to reach?"
"I am looking to talk to the owner of this phone number."
"I'm sorry, I'll need a name to help you."
30 seconds of silence.
Call hangs up.
@vees - I do this too! "Good afternoon, how may I direct your call?"
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Answering unknown number calls on my cell phone like a receptionist really confuses scammers.
"Good afternoon, thanks for calling!"
"Hello."
"Hi, who's calling please?"
"This is Experian Security Services calling to discuss an urgent issue with your account."
"Who are you trying to reach?"
"I am looking to talk to the owner of this phone number."
"I'm sorry, I'll need a name to help you."
30 seconds of silence.
Call hangs up.
@vees I knew a woman who used to say, in a bright voice, "I have broccoli in my spcks!" There really is no way to respond to that.
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@vees Thank God for iOS 26 and being able to screen unknown callers automatically. It's saved me wasting my time with this sort of pavlava and reduced my spam calls to almost zero. The single best iPhone feature since Face ID.
@dshan @vees Same here. But I have a few callers that will not leave the prompted name and reason for call, and instead call repeatedly. Don't they realize the call simply is not coming through without it? Maybe it's a learning process; I had a driver ask me about why my phone number prompts, and they are an iPhone user.
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@vees i usually 'put them on hold for a second' ... just put my phone down and carry on doing whatever it was that they interrupted. occasionally hear their faint "hello?"s. see how long they hold out before hanging up. any second they waste with me is a second they're not scamming somebody
A few seconds of silence often seems to do the job. They hang up. I assume it's a super-optimised operation.
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@effariwhy @vees “Shouldn’t you already know?”
“Aw, you got me…this is the CIA.” -
Answering unknown number calls on my cell phone like a receptionist really confuses scammers.
"Good afternoon, thanks for calling!"
"Hello."
"Hi, who's calling please?"
"This is Experian Security Services calling to discuss an urgent issue with your account."
"Who are you trying to reach?"
"I am looking to talk to the owner of this phone number."
"I'm sorry, I'll need a name to help you."
30 seconds of silence.
Call hangs up.
@vees can confirm that "This is Ellie, how may I direct your call?" also works fabulously.
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@kerravonsen Good one. I've found the words that correspond to our numbers digits; I should try saying those out loud to scammers and wait for the "huh, what?".
@jspath55 Even better!
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Answering unknown number calls on my cell phone like a receptionist really confuses scammers.
"Good afternoon, thanks for calling!"
"Hello."
"Hi, who's calling please?"
"This is Experian Security Services calling to discuss an urgent issue with your account."
"Who are you trying to reach?"
"I am looking to talk to the owner of this phone number."
"I'm sorry, I'll need a name to help you."
30 seconds of silence.
Call hangs up.
@vees Another way I trap scammers is if they ask for "Mrs" (my-surname). I will cheerfully say "There's no Mrs MySurname here!"
Because I'm not, and have never been, married, therefore there is no "Mrs." here.Yes, sometimes this catches legitimate callers, but only if they have never had dealings with me before... which is rare.
A variation on that is "No, she's not here, can I take a message?"
They never leave a message.
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@vees I just tell them I use Linux and half the time their scam involves installing Windows only software. They immediately hang up
@codebam @vees There was one time, and one time only, that I had the patience to lead them on as they were directing me to do things like open my Windows Registry, and I played the dumb-user card and said, "but I can't find that, it isn't on my menu" and so on.
I wasn't very patient, though, because after five minutes I broke down and said "I'm running Linux, and I know you are a scammer, goodbye!" -
@codebam @vees There was one time, and one time only, that I had the patience to lead them on as they were directing me to do things like open my Windows Registry, and I played the dumb-user card and said, "but I can't find that, it isn't on my menu" and so on.
I wasn't very patient, though, because after five minutes I broke down and said "I'm running Linux, and I know you are a scammer, goodbye!"@kerravonsen @vees If you go through what they want you to do they usually have you open Event Viewer and tell you you need antivirus software. Once they have remote control they can do anything, depends who you're dealing with and what they find on your PC. Often they try to send themselves money from your bank account
