Comment by lukan
4 months ago
"no one will be emailing you… except scammers, no exceptions."
Might be, because I was travelling a lot, but I got lots of unknown numbers calling me that turned out to be friends with a new number. Now I surely could have locked myself up in a cage then there would be no risk, but also not reward.
Calling a unknown number back - no. But taking a call and saying hello did never cost me anything. I also don't just send money away or would install weird things on my computer because someone on the phone says so, so what is the danger?
Have you ever answered a robocall, and the first thing they ask is "Can you hear me OK?" or "My Bluetooth is acting up. Can you hear me?"
They want to record your voice, saying "yes."
I always say "I can hear you." I never say "yes," or anything like that, during the short time I'm on the line with them.
However, that is probably not valid, anymore, because they just need to record a fairly short segment of your voice, to generate a deepfake.
If it is a robocall, I would hang up and not say yes. Otherwise "I can hear you" and avoiding saying yes is good advice.
And as for deepfakes, I assume they become good and widespread enough soon, that no telephone contracts become enforcable.
friends with a new number can leave a voicemail saying they are who they are (or text or hit you up on social or…)
taking a call from unknown number, never under any circumstance. people calling you do this for a living, you pick up and your odds are stacked against you. maybe not yours or mine but my Father’s for sure :)
Well, I allmost did fell for a phone scam once, but due to weird circumstances I believed it was official Microsoft support as I expected them. Still, I won't install shady things from shady sites on request from a phone, so it did not got far.