this post was submitted on 09 Jun 2025
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See, for me, if you call me and don't leave a voicemail, I'm going to assume it was unimportant (or spam) and I won't call back. Businesses, which are most likely going to an unknown number, should leave a voicemail if they want any action on my part. I mostly don't want businesses texting me because they tend to spam the fuck out of you. And I'm sure as fuck never going to pick up the phone for an unknown number.
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.
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.
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!
Interesting, one of the recent voicemails I received was a very high-quality voice courtesy one of everyone’s favorite text-to-speech companies (perhaps ElevenLabs)
Wonder if it’s possible they were trying to route on the fly, if they had such a low latency system that they’re able to wait for potential victims to say hello before instantly transferring to a human scammer.
Probably a bot waiting for a voice in order to start. It waits until it hangs up.
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.
It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop... ever, until ~~you are dead~~ it's no longer profitable to operate the automated service!
I got that kind of call for four years after I got a new phone number. 2-3 times a day. Plus texts offering to buy Tuyet's home, appointment reminders for her & her kid's(?) doctor, occasional temp-staffing offers. You can't beat them by not answering.
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.
It's AI, I'd be willing to bet. Waiting to detect a human before responding with whatever scam they're selling.
that doesn't really require AI lol
Playing back a message when you hear someone pick up? No, they've been doing that forever. But trying to determine whether you have a human on the line or just their voicemail recording? That's something that could start to require more sophisticated language models, and the fact that the message didn't just start rattling something off as soon as something picked up suggests maybe they're using it. Actual phone scams using AI? Well, if they're not doing it yet, they will be soon.
You've gotta be diligent: if you do business with something, like a project or an appointment, you need to drop their number into your contact list. Every time. Yeah, it's neat if you need to reach out to them, which will be never because it's on the phone, but it's primarily so they can call you and not be unknown.
I'd love a QR code with the org's phone/mail/blah number on it at the front desk, because I do in-person a lot because fuck the phone.
Sometimes it’s fun, when you know it’s spam, to answer it while it’s ringing (which may let the operator know ‘hey, they answered, start talking’) and quickly hit Speaker and Mute and enjoy 5-10 sec of them being confused when they hear silence back.