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Getting 5 to 10 spam calls / voicemails - what changed?

8 points by tlogan ↗ HN
I’ve noticed that spam calls and voicemails have been getting exponentially worse. I used to receive maybe two spam calls a week, things like loan offers, IRS, extended car warranties, and similar scams. That was annoying, but manageable.

Lately, though, it feels like the volume is increasing rapidly. More calls, more voicemails, now multiple in a single day.

Has something changed recently: telecom regulation, call filtering systems, or spammer tactics that might explain this spike?

I just want to get educated. Is there some AI involved?

7 comments of 10

[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 25.7 ms ] thread
rolph
along with all the other data that may be snarphed, or phished, consider adding voice profile generation to your threat model, if you do engage at all, modify your dialogue to avoid generating critical voice prompts that will append to the scamburger helper profile.
WhereIsTheTruth
It happens world wide, I wonder if there is any kind of environmental effect, as a result of the insane amount of waves circulating all at once

Weather, sleep?

MisterTea
A year or two ago I had a spate of scam calls that peaked at 4 to 6 per day for a few weeks then dropped off to one, maybe two per day. Best defense is to turn on do not disturb but allow you contacts to ring. T-mobile tags suspicious numbers as scam likely or spam and Google also introduced a call screener recently. Still get scam calls but at least they are maybe one per day.
red-iron-pine
AI is almost certainly involved and I'd argue that it's hitting hard in 2 places.

First, it's finding more targets to hit via better ads, tracking, and collating information that was sold.

Secondly it makes finding vulns, hacking phones, and running the "physical" (may actually be a compromised camera, or a deliberately built ephemeral cloud system) infrastructure easier.