There have been multiple accounts created with the sole purpose of posting advertisement posts or replies containing unsolicited advertising.

Accounts which solely post advertisements, or persistently post them may be terminated.

Spam calls and texts are driving me fing crazy anyone have suggestions?

After repeated data breaches that no company really seems to give a s— about my phone is blowing up with literally hundreds of spam calls and texts month. I get and make MAAAAYBE 2 or 3 important calls per month, 180-200 of the rest are literally all spam. Anyone have any suggestions, apps ect that they have found refuge with? I really don’t use SMS that much either, mostly it’s via signal, discord whats app, ect…

Just to put it out there I run CalyxOS on a Pixel 5a.

lazycouchpotato ,
@lazycouchpotato@lemmy.world avatar

I have Call Screen on my Pixel 6a doing a lot of heavy lifting for me.

I really wish there was a non-Google version of it that everyone could download and use.

Atemu ,
@Atemu@lemmy.ml avatar

That reminds me, STT, TTS and a tiny LLM are feasible to run on phone hardware these days. You could conceivably build something like Google’s data gobbling solution but fully local and offline.

focusforte ,

Pixel’s all screening from Google has pretty much completely solved my spam call issue.

Set it up to screen every single call from anyone who is not in my contacts, And I haven’t had to miss any important unexpected calls, or answer any spam calls, in months

EnderMB ,

I love this feature so much. While I feel like the Pixel misses a lot of cool features from OnePlus and Samsung, this is IMO a killer feature.

ElderWendigo ,

I added the phone number disconnected sound effect to the beginning of my voicemail outgoing message, set my ringer to silent, and set a personalized ringtone to anyone I actually wanted to speak with. That worked okay to get me off most of the lists. When that wasn’t enough to drive all of them away I started answering unknown numbers and fucking with the people on the other end, saying anything to string them along and waste their time with bullshit and lies. That actually worked better than anything else.

flashgnash ,

I find if you answer their calls and fuck with them for a bit they tend to stop calling

_dev_null ,
@_dev_null@lemmy.zxcvn.xyz avatar

I started answering unknown numbers and fucking with the people on the other end, saying anything to string them along and waste their time with bullshit and lies

I had a stoner friend who would drop everything in any given evening to do exactly this, specifically for his own entertainment and derision.

Ah, to be young and with plenty of spare time on hand, those were the days and we didn’t even realize it.

CADmonkey ,

My wife and I used to take care of her grandmother. After a while, this old lady got excited to get a scam call or telemarketer, because she would hand the phone to me and I’d just pick a persona:

  • Confused old man
  • Helplessly stoned young man
  • Lecherous and blustery impolite person

There were others, but those were her favorites.

sxan ,
@sxan@midwest.social avatar

Yet Another Call Blocker is in F-Droid.

Pyro ,

I have a Pixel 5a too and the call screening option is a godsend.

cheese_greater ,

Airplane mode or MySudo

XbSuper ,

If you ran standard OS, your phone would handle it for you. It’s my favourite thing about my pixel.

So I guess my suggestion is to revert back to the standard pixel OS.

lvxferre ,
@lvxferre@lemmy.ml avatar

Note: this depends a lot on which governments you pay taxes to (country, state/province, city). With that in mind:

  • Check if there’s a “do not call” list where you live - i.e. a gov-enforced list of numbers that you are forbidden to call for advertisement. If there is one, put your number there.
  • Do not answer spam calls at all. Usually it’s easy to identify them, but there are some applications for this, like this (it’s in F-Droid so likely available for CalyxOS). By simply not answering those calls, your number gets marked as “inactive” by the advertisers/spammers/telemarketers, so the frequency of the calls gets lower over time.
  • Get a new phone number, redirect all legitimate contacts to your new number, and trash away the old one.
Atemu ,
@Atemu@lemmy.ml avatar

gov-enforced list of numbers that you are forbidden to call for advertisement. If there is one, put your number there.

As a scam caller from some country the US has no influence over, that would be a great resource!

lvxferre ,
@lvxferre@lemmy.ml avatar

I believe that it should still reduce the likelihood of spam calls - because you don’t advertise where you aren’t selling stuff, and if you’re selling stuff you don’t want to piss off the local government.

For reference: where I live the “do not call” list is from the state. Most of those spam calls come from people in other states controlled by the same republic, thus not subjected to the rules of my state - and yet the “do not call” list still does its job.

mozzribo ,

Try “Should I Answer?” works flawlessly for me. If you don’t subscribe, you have to manually update the database every week or so, for which you can get a notification.

Mr_Blott ,

I dunno, have you tried living on a continent with actual consumer rights? Pffft 😅

mojo ,

what does this even mean

LowtierComputer ,

Not America basically.

mojo ,

nice xenophobia that’s objectively not true

Schmeckinger ,

How is calling out the lack of consumer rights in america xenophobia?

mojo ,

because we have consumer rights, it’s objectively untrue as I literally just said.

Schmeckinger ,

Yes you have consumer rights, they just suck compared to the EU for example.

SuiXi3D ,
@SuiXi3D@kbin.social avatar

I know they don’t have the best reputation, but Truecaller’s ‘Voice Assistant’ feature has been a godsend for me. The basic bot answers calls from unknown numbers and transcribes their response before ringing, and only if they don’t hang up. I’ll look at my phone to see I have a few missed calls from unknown numbers, only to find that Truecaller intercepted them all and they hung up once they heard the message that the call was being screened. It’s great.

Folks that call for legitimate reasons that aren’t in my contacts generally leave a message and I get the call once they’ve left it. Folks that are in my contacts ring as normal.

CascadianGiraffe ,

Imagine being unemployed and looking for work.

I have to answer every call.

Every call is spam. The number of calls I get has increased tenfold.

I’m certain that some of these jobs and recruitment sites aren’t actually hiring for anything. They are just collecting and selling my data.

JokeDeity ,

Shit man, I’m in the exact same boat (well, employed, but not even remotely close to being in a financially viable way). I’m so tired of answering the phone, being asked my name, and not knowing if it’s going to be one of the hundreds of jobs I’ve applied for, a debt collector, or a run of the mill spam/scam.

SocialMediaRefugee ,

I never answer unless I recognize the caller. If it is important they can leave a voice mail.

On the plus side I no longer get the weekly call from the Chinese lady.

GiddyGap ,

I do the same. And then I quickly block the number I didn’t know. Seems to help, but I still get lots of spam calls.

DudeDudenson ,

I just started blocking each number that called/texted one by one. Most call centers have 5 or 6 numbers they use at most so eventually you just stop getting the calls/messages

It took almost a year but now if I get a call I know it’s something I should pick up 95% of the time

the_q ,

Too bad you aren’t running stock Android to get that spam blocking.

Karlos_Cantana ,
@Karlos_Cantana@sopuli.xyz avatar

Mine will show “Spam” or “Telemarketer”, but there’s no way to stop it from ringing trough, outside of blocking each number afterward. I’d like to know who thought that just announcing spam was better than not letting it through.

XbSuper ,

Check your settings, mine doesn’t even show me a missed call.

DogMuffins ,

blocking numbers is a waste of time.

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