I’ve been wondering about something that probably resonates with many of us who still use our phones for calls and not just texting or apps. What percentage of phone calls are actually legitimate?
Even with my carrier’s “junk call” blocking, I find myself receiving 4 to 5 calls daily with no caller ID. It’s become second nature now to reject these unknown callers. But if I do answer, it often turns into a choice between being pitched a Medicare scam, a car insurance scam, a social security scam, or even a utility scam.
It makes me curious – how much of our call traffic is just a relentless barrage of marketing ploys and fraudulent schemes? The few times I still get a phone call, they either have caller ID and it’s someone I know, or it’s just a phone number and there’s a 99% chance it’s junk.
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Government departments, hospital, many companies regularly call me with “No Caller ID” and then seem surprised when I don’t answer.
If it’s urgent, they
willshould leave a message (instead they keep calling and complain that “it’s hard to get hold of me”).I actually just got a new phone number because I was receiving literally hundreds of spam calls, text messages, and voicemail messages in a foreign language, every week. I have “Silence unknown callers” switched on. Only my contacts can get through. If anyone else doesn’t leave a voicemail, send a text message, or email me, then it’s not urgent and I won’t even try to follow up.
If it’s urgent, they will should leave a message (instead they keep calling and complain that “it’s hard to get hold of me”).
This fucking kills me. The people who I screen the call, they go to voicemail, they hang up and try again, I send them to voicemail… it’s infuriating. Voicemail exists for a reason! And yes, my experience mirrors yours in that the same people will say they have “no way” to reach me.
I had one person tell me that they were just trying to get past do not disturb by calling twice.
I was like… It was that important, but not important enough to leave a voicemail or text? Suspicious…
Properly configured telephone systems at hospitals etc. will show their main public facing phone number on Caller ID for any outbound call.
From Canada: I get legit calls from private numbers. Usually it is based on something I have inquired previously about, by phone, text message, webform or email.
Random non-scam cold calls have been largely: surveys (a federal election is coming), requests to donate places from places I’ve donated to before, telecom companies I have ditched begging me to come back. But anything that begins with an automated sounding message I just hang up immediately.
I used to set my phone as a private number. I’d have to call customers sometimes to confirm times or discuss jobs, but most customers didn’t need access to my direct number and we’d rather them contact the office than contact me directly.
I’ve had the same phone number since 1992. It’s public, on my website. It’s in everyone’s database. Yesterday I spoke with an organisation that I hadn’t dealt with since 1998, they had it and knew my name (and when I got licensed, the reason for my call).
My phone is on silent 100% of the time.
All blocked caller ID goes direct to voicemail. The only time I actually get a voicemail from these calls is when it’s a stupid robot or a human who actually needs to speak with me, the rest of the time I get nothing.
I can see a future where we get to the point where we’re uncontactable because there’s so much spam and fraud.
I think that the onus is on telcos to stamp this out, but it’s all income generating, so they don’t have any financial incentives to fix this.
I have silence unknown callers on my phone so if you’re not in my contacts, straight to voicemail.
Personnally, I started never answering to any unknown number (masked caller id or even just numbers not in my contacts). When it’s legit, caller leave a message on voicemail. Scammer, direct marketing,… never leave messages. Ok I still get the call and have to ignore or reject it (but it’s better than answering and having a commercial starting his speech).
Typically only the ones from my local doctor’s surgery are legit no number (UK). Government agencies provide numbers these days as far as I’ve seen.
So I haven’t/can’t blocked no numbers on the Google phone app.
If I get a call to my private number and it’s not someone from my contacts there’s over 99% chance that it’s a telemarketer.
However, to address your question wether any of them are legit - well ofcourse. You’ve probably called people too that don’t have you in their contacts. I know that for example the police in my country always call you from an unknown number.
I called 911 a few years ago and they had a police officer call me back when he got to my neighborhood. I had to do this a few times as the incident repeated a few days later. Each time the officer called me his number was hidden.
That’s the only time I’ve ever had a call from a hidden number that was not a scam, but I would be hesitant to block them all
Whenever I call 911, my phone notifies my that blocked numbers will be able to call for a little bit after dialing 911.
I’d clock it at a fraction of 1%. I had one relative I’d hear from once every few months who always forgot to unblock their landline number before dialing, and then there’s the rare healthcare number that you’re not meant to be able to call back (but you’re told to expect the call). But effectively all of them are spam. If it’s important, they’ll leave a message and callback number.
If they are commercial calls, then NO.
In my country.
At least some are legit. I’ll also add onto the doctors office example. Their main number probably has caller id, but the numbers they call back from tend to not. I assume it would be true of similar businesses where they might call back from multiple lines but are too small to use any sort of switchboard
