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Ask HN: I'm Being Spammed by Sequential Phone Numbers. What Can I Do About It?

4 points by notional ↗ HN
I'm really not sure what triggered this and I'm so lost on how to stop this besides just changing my phone number. I'm hoping with the broad audience on here I can get some advice. I've never experienced spam at this level on a personal device.

For the last 2 weeks I've been getting spammed by sequential phone numbers from my phone number's area code (which I no longer live in same state either).

The numbers look like,

470-220-2708

470-220-2709

470-220-2710

470-220-2711

470-220-2712

...

470-220-2724

Every time I block and report the number but I don't really think the report does anything.

There was another 470 area code sequential phone number set that was also spamming me for a few days but those stopped.

15 comments

[ 3.5 ms ] story [ 52.2 ms ] thread
gostsamo
What is the exact spam? Can it be reported to the police or to the telecom selling those numbers?
notional
I'm unsure because I do not answer the calls.

Since I do not live in 470 area code I do not answer calls from there. I've read (unsure the validity) that answering spam calls alone can be used as another data point in phishing.

gostsamo
Well, the information that you can gain might be more than what they will gain from you. Options are not to talk and just to check what will be said on the other side. Also, not sure if there is a way to blacklist phone numbers by regex, but it is worth exploring. :)
seattle_spring
I get the same shit. I rarely pick up, but when they do leave a message it's for one of:

* Extended car warranties

* "Winning" a free Marriott trip

* Claims that I owe money to the IRS, and if I don't call back they'll "be forced" to send an agent to arrest me

In other words: 100% scams.

Trias11
I once actually "pressed 1" to speak to some "operator".

Then i threatened whoever was on the other line with abuse.

Calls apparently stopped

seattle_spring
I've tried that a few times to no avail. It does give slight pleasure to trick them into thinking I'm going to buy a warranty or something and waste 10 mins of their time.
simonblack
I used to do that before I got to the point of being unwilling to spend my time trying to beat my personal best record of two hours of holding them on the line.

"I'm very old and I don't know what you are wanting me to do... Can you say all that again? .... My bank login doesn't seem to be working.... My computer doesn't have that button on it ...."

throw14082020
Stop using your phone number. It's a drastic solution, but the sooner we stop and find alternatives, the better position we will be in. You don't get spam called on Signal, Facebook Messenger nearly as much, do you?

Of course there are problems with this, but these can be solved. Phone spam can't.

swiley
I've stopped creating accounts on services like signal because I'm tired of them doing something stupid, everyone leaving, and then my data ending up owned by Facebook.

If you want to have a voice conversation how do you intend to do that? I haven't found something that effectively replaces my landline yet but I'm all ears (and could hear a lot better if I didn't have to deal with the ringing in the background.)

cddotdotslash
Turning on Google phone screen (if you're on Android) has been helpful for me. It doesn't block everything, but a decent number of spam calls get picked up by the Google bot and then hang up.
notional
Thanks I haven't heard of that before. I will try installing this and see if it blocks the numbers from getting through.
runjake
On iPhone, enable “Silence unknown callers” and add the callers you care about to your contacts. The calls will go straight to voicemail.

If you’re expecting a call from some random person, just disable it temporarily.

Trias11
... plus nothing horrible happens even if someone miss a call. Read voice mail and call back in 30 seconds. Problem solved.
zzo38computer
Depends what telephone you use, maybe. Can you block an entire range of numbers?

For a land line, maybe something in between to intercept and block the calls, try to make up such thing; for a cell phone, to try to modify the software to add such a capability.

AnimalMuppet
On an Android phone (or at least on mine), you can use wildcards. So just block 470-220-xxxx or 470-220-2xxx.