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Comment by eru | Hacker News Reader

> I totally ignore calls from numbers that I don't know; a rare privilege.

When I am not totally busy, I usually accept them and put myself on mute and put the phone down.

They typically waste a minute saying 'hello, hello?' before hanging up, while I keep working. (Alas, I get a lot of spam calls.)

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Your method probably leads to more calls since your number will be marked as active if you pick up

They usually spend a minute cursing my mother in a language I don't understand, but they aren't organized enough to note that my number is a huge waste of time.

Occasionally, when I'm bored, I actually tried to engage with them, but they immediately hang up, when they notice I don't speak Mandarin; and my attempts at Nihao haven't convinced anyone so far.

For context, I'm in Singapore, and I suspect the vast majority of these spam calls are manned by PRC people.

> and my attempts at Nihao haven't convinced anyone so far.

Try some Nihao’s and then say you’ll go get grandma or something. You’re just the child answering the phone for your immigrant parents that always forget that the call is on hold.

They immediately hang up. And I don't sound like a child on the phone.

Funnily enough, I am an immigrant parent myself here.

I get tons of these on my Canadian VOIP number, even I don't live in Canada. I can't decide if it's because they know a Mandarin phishing will hit 5% of Canadians so it's worth the effort to spam everyone or if it's because they know who I am and that I can speak passable Mandarin, which is somewhat creepier.

Canadian here who can barely get past ni hao... My voice mail from SPAM tends to be Mandarin, so I think it's a shotgun blast to the 5%

As an American with a Texas area code, I noticed a wave of Chinese-language† spam - I recall reading that it was some sort of scam involving threats of deportation, maybe? But it settled down after a few weeks. Maybe their targeting got better, or maybe enough word got around the Chinese-speaking community to make the scam unprofitable.

† - I have on idea which language specifically was being spoken. Probably Mandarin, but how would I know?

In the UK, and I get lots of spam calls on my mobile that are initially in English but end with "press one for English or 2 for Chinese" or similar, and you get connected to someone speaking Chinese either way.

Most of them are from "immigration department" (incorrect terminology for the UK BTW) and are about invalid visas or the like. Some claim to be from the Chinese Embassy.

I have two numbers in the same area code, one work and one personal.

I mess with them on the personal line but never the work. (Ok, that’s slightly different than answering vs not).

Informally, I don’t see a difference and this is after years of this hilarious activity.

I think if you pick up but are silent it's still (mostly) fine.

Pickup but silence might end up being better than letting one's voicemail grab it. Would make for an interesting study.

My phone has an automatic response button, which lets the caller talk to a computer voice. They never have much to say after I press that.

I would think those who answer the calls are automatically placed on a list as this person answers and your number is sold as such.

Personally I have the "Silence Unknown Numbers," feature on my iPhone always toggled on. All unknown ..not in my contacts already..I never hear or see calling.. I might see I missed their call but my mind ignores missed call.

Overall if I dont know you well your not in my iPhone contacts ..getting to know new folks they are given my Google voice number which is only for texting.

I'd love to do this but too often a call is made by an unknown number to me in response to an action, e.g i requested a dishwasher repair via email, i was called to schedule it by the contractor it was assigned to by my landlord. If i ignored that call it's likely a game of chasing them back up and potentially navigating PBX systems, etc

I find that caller-id works pretty well for these kinds of expected unknown calls for me. But that might just be a Singapore thing? (Or perhaps it's an Android thing, and Google looks up the number? Not sure.)

I believe it's a Google thing, which i have turned off because i don't need every call being sent to them for a minor convenience

They can leave a voicemail.

This is usually the way, but still, it's often more difficult than answering when they call

My phone number is already on multiple lists like that; I get a minimum of three spam phone calls a day. I don't think that answering or not-answering is going to make a significant dent.

> Personally I have the "Silence Unknown Numbers," feature on my iPhone always toggled on. All unknown ..not in my contacts already..I never hear or see calling.. I might see I missed their call but my mind ignores missed call.

I have a young child, in school and after-school activities; I don't want to risk missing a relevant phone call, as well as phone calls from actual doctors & such who need to get in touch with me. (And I can't easily whitelist every phone number some given office/person might end up using to reach me.)

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